Ohana Mau Loa
by hero-lynn
Summary: (Family Forever) It's understood that Steve McGarrett would do anything for his family, but when the time comes, would they do the same for him? Five times Steve McGarrett saved his 'ohana and one time they saved him. COMPLETE
1. Chin

**'Ohana Mau Loa**_** (Family forever)**_

**Hey guys, so I've been working on this series forever, and I'm finally getting them edited so I can post! I am in love with Hawaii Five-0, it is my favorite TV show of all times. Steve is my favorite character, but Danny is a close second. I love them and their arguments, oh man it is great. So I've been working on some short stories in my free time, and I decided it was time to start posting some of them. I have so many stories and so many ideas, but this was the first one I worked on so I thought it was time. This is my first Hawaii Five-0 story on this site, and some of the characters might but OOC, but I am trying my best. **

**This is one of those 5+1 prompts, personally one of my favorite types of stories. So it is Five times Steve McGarrett saved his 'ohana and one time they saved him. This is set in season 4 so Catherine will be a part of this, but right now I am not counting her as part of the "team". ****There is going to be a total of six chapters, one for each character, but of varying lengths. There is also not going to be a sequence, so these don't necessarily happen right after the other. **

**Finally, I have been picking out specific music when writing chapters, so I thought I should share them. You don't have to listen to them, they don't relate to the story all that much, they were mostly used as inspiration for me when I was writing them. But if you want to check them out, listen to them while you read, I'd recommend it. **

**Anyway, with two final things. One, my stories don't have a ton of romance unless explicitly stated, but there is a general one in this of Steve/Catherine. I don't go into detail on it, though. Finally, my disclaimer. I do not own any of the characters, as much as I would like to, or any known names, symbols, music, yadda yadda yadda.**

**I'm going to let you guys go, please leave a review saying how you liked it, I love reading them. I have most of the chapters written out, editing them is just the problem, so I will try to post them as often as I can. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**Chin**

_**Strangers Here by Tenth Avenue** **North**_

* * *

"You really didn't need to drive all the way out here Steve. I could've handled it."

"No, it's not a problem. Besides, I needed to get out of the house." Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett crouched down on the floor, hands running over a beauty of a machine. It's sleek and pristine exterior, elegantly crafted parts, he was in his glory. When Chin had called Steve that Saturday morning right after his daily run about a problem, Steve jumped at the chance. Days off were a rare luxury in their line of work, but sometimes Steve got bored with nothing to do. When Steve had gotten a call from Chin saying that his motorcycle was having problems starting, Steve grabbed at the chance. Steve was working on the Mercury in the garage, but that was a slow-moving process. Some changes would be welcome. After checking various parts of the bike, Steve moved from the fuel line to the spark plugs, where he immediately found the problem.

"Chin Ho Kelly, don't tell me that you forgot to replace the spark plugs," Steve said with a grin on his face, looking up from the bike to stare at the Hawaiian man. Chin froze from wiping down one of his tools as his mouth dropped open.

"You're kidding me."

"Not at all. When was the last time you changed them?" Chin shook his head, a surprised smile breaking out on his face.

"I don't even remember. It's been a while." Chin ran a hand through his hair, chuckling. "Man, I can't believe I missed that." Steve stood up and wiped off his own hands on a rag. This was what days off were meant for. Not sitting alone in his house, a warm beer untouched as he flipped through mindless TV channels. Steve was an active person, had been that way since he was a kid and his time in the Navy did nothing to stop it. So when he had nothing to do, he was always up for a little adventure.

"It's alright, everyone makes mistakes. I -" The roar of the engines cut off Steve's statement and the two men watched intently as three black government vehicles pulled in on the street in front of Chin's house blocking it off. The lead car pulled up the driver, stopping inches away from Steve and Chin.

Instantly, both highly trained and instinctual cops reached for their weapons as men swarmed Chin's front yard, their guns were drawn. Steve reached for his gun on his hip only to come up empty, remembering that he left his gun and badge on the back counter inside of Chin's garage. As the men in suits surrounding them, Steve shot a backward glance towards it, judging the distance. If he moved fast enough, these guys possibly wouldn't become super trigger-happy. Unfortunately, Steve wasn't fast enough. Two specific men targeted McGarrett and Kelly, getting up close and personal in a matter of seconds.

"Hands in the air, get down on your knees," the suit barked, eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses. His gun was aimed center mass of Steve's chest, but Steve wasn't threatened that easily. Ignoring the man's instructions completely, Steve did not put his hands up but turned his head slightly to get a better look at Chin. Two men swarmed him, handcuffs out. Chin's fists were clenched at his side and his jaw was set, but nobody moved.

"I said get on your knees!" The suit in front of Steve had enough of Steve's ignorance. He brought his gun up so it was inches away from Steve's face. Steve focused on the gun first then the man, searching for eyes behind the dark sunglasses. The corner of his mouth twitched up in a grim smile.

"You really don't want to do that."

The suit's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth curled into a scowl. Steve matched him as if he was daring the man to shoot. Before anything could escalate further, another man stepped out from the cars holding his badge high in the air. The man had a certain air to him, something you couldn't quite place. From the way he held himself, the confident strides, grim determined face, all the way down to the perfectly tied shoelaces. This was a man who got what he wanted and stopped at nothing to get it.

"Mark Johnson, Internal Affairs. Men, stand down." At the voice of their officer, reluctantly the men dropped their guns. The suit in front of Steve didn't move so Steve took the liberty and helped move him along. With two fingers, he pressed down on the top of the barrel until it was at the suit's side, angering him even more. Johnson walked in a straight line up the driveway, and Steve cut across to intercept him.

"What is all this about? What do you want?" Normally Steve tried to be on his best behavior in front of IA, any slip up could be used in an investigation into Five-0. Coughlin was big on trying to get Five-0 involved in anything, especially Chin Ho. But this wasn't Coughlin. Steve didn't recognize Johnson and he hadn't heard of him before, but it wasn't uncommon for hotshot IA officers to try and go after Five-0 for their first time on the job. But all of this was completely uncalled for, and honestly, it pissed Steve off.

Johnson ignored Steve and headed straight for Chin, who had not stood down. Chin-who normally was the most level-headed of them all-stared at Johnson with such a burning hatred it almost made Steve step back. Steve thought he saw a flash of familiarity in Chin's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it happened. Steve counted the people and assessed the situation. Two of them against twelve armed IA agents was not an ideal situation, but it could work. He kept a careful eye on the few agents in the back, gripping their rifles until their knuckles turned white. Steve had brushed off his initial concern, but it was back. While some IA agents carried guns, none of them carried rifles. Something was off, and Steve didn't like it.

"Chin Ho Kelly, you are under arrest for money laundering, fraud, and treason against the United States of America. You have the right to remain silent. You have -" Two more agents around Chin shoved his arms behind his back and put him in handcuffs while continuing the Miranda rights. Steve walked up right behind Johnson, searching for answers.

"Do you even have any evidence of this?" Steve argued, but the words only hit Johnson's back. Johnson did not break stride, did not stop walking, gave no attention to Steve. Chin and Johnson were locked in eye contact that neither of them broke.

"It's classified." Johnson finally turned and gave Steve the once over as his agents walked Chin past them. "We are transporting him back to our holding cell so we can complete the interrogation and then trial. You will be able to call him in three days." Johnson turned to walk away, but Steve was having none of it. Steve stood behind Johnson and clapped a hand down on his shoulder, intent on turning the man around so they could talk face to face, but Johnson fought back. Johnson pushed Steve's hand off as he whirled around, face-up in a snarl. It was so fast, Steve swore that he saw Johnson's hand rearing back for a punch, but there were no hits.

"Do _not_ touch me," Johnson growled.

"You can't just come in here and -"

"Yes. I can." Without another word, Johnson walked back to the cars with the rest of the agents following him. Steve was helpless, and he hated it. Short of punching the agent and causing a scene, he couldn't do anything. Either way, he wasn't going to stand idle while his friend was being punished for something he didn't do. Steve followed Johnson, never taking his eyes off Chin. Chin's head was pushed down - not so gently - and he was forced into the car. Only barely able to see, Steve stalked after them. With only a few seconds left before the door was shut and he would be gone, Chin didn't know if he had enough time to say all that he needed.

"Tell John I'm alright." Steve could do nothing but watch as the door slammed behind Chin, separating the two men. As soon as they arrived they were gone, leaving Steve in the empty driveway utterly confused.

_Tell John I'm alright._ Who was John? The only person Steve thought of was his dad, but how would he fit in? He'd been dead for a few years now, and Chin didn't have any… It all clicked. The nervous twitch in his gut had been right. The excessive guns, unrecognizable agents, Chin's cryptic sentences. Chin had been partners with John McGarrett when they were both on HPD, while Steve was gone. But since John McGarrett had been dead, why was he being brought up now? Whatever it meant, it had something with Chin and his dad.

Jumping into action, he rolled Chin's bike back into the garage and closed the door behind him, snatching up his gun and badge from the table until he was inside. Steve stood inside of Chin's house and looked around, trying to find some connection with old HPD. Pictures lined the walls and counters, a few decorations and plants, but nothing obvious. There was nothing suspicious until Steve's eyes fell on Chin's desk.

Sitting on the counter was an old picture of Chin with John McGarrett in the old HPD uniforms. Gently, Steve picked up the photograph and stared at the two men in it. His father, who seemed like he barely knew then taken from him in a blink of an eye; Chin Ho Kelly, the man who rose up the ranks and joined the Five-0 team and became one of the few people that Steve trusted his life with. They were smiling and happy. Something Steve never got to experience. Sometimes Chin told stories about his dad on the HPD. Chin would get this far-off look in his eye, even though the memories weren't all that far off. He would tell the story, laughing at parts that didn't seem funny at first, only because they were part of an inside joke only Chin and John understood. Steve would laugh and smile, but he missed them. He missed out on all the jokes, missed out on the references and the good old' times, missed out on having a father. Steve would never blame Chin - he couldn't - but sometimes it felt like John McGarrett was more of a father to Chin than Steve, his own flesh and blood. It felt like John McGarrett was a stranger to his own son.

Steve lowered himself into the rolling chair and let his hands hover over the table. The desk was perfectly organized on the top, not a single thing out of place. The top drawer was all just pens, pencils, office supplies. Down the sides, he went through the first two drawers without anything related to his dad or old HPD. There were some magazines and random papers in the drawers, but nothing relevant.

In the bottom left drawer, Steve hit the jackpot. The drawer was full of folders from old cases. Since they weren't in HPD's files or Five-0, they must've been personal investigations or copies of cases before IA came after him the first time. Steve flipped through the names, lips forming the words as he read through them. Steve's hopes had risen when he found the folders, but none of the names were recognizable. So Steve pulled out all the files, letting them fall on the desk. He didn't have time to organize all of them, but Chin's life was on the line, and this was his best shot.

Steve started by pulling out cases that didn't involve Chin at all. There would be no reason to go after the man if he hadn't been involved in the first place. Then he pulled out ones that specifically had Chin and John McGarrett running the case, narrowing the list to about fifteen cases. Steve pulled out the files and started flipping through them, looking for anything familiar. As he got to one of the last files, one with the name Roberts, Jason on it, a picture caught Steve's eye. The picture was paperclipped to the inside of the folder. The face of Jason Roberts was nearly identical to one Mark Johnson. It was too much of a coincidence for Steve's liking, and it confirmed his suspicions. Johnson had to be a fake name.

Steve flipped until he was at the report, and soon the more he read the more concerned he got. Chin and John McGarrett were the main investigators into the Roberts' case, where the twin brothers Jason and Mark Roberts were professional con men. They had run long cons all over the mainland, before coming to Hawaii to continue their rampage. Reading into the detail, Steve was almost impressed at the amount of planning the brother put into their cons. Nearly perfect false identities, impeccable costumes, badges if needed. They had run freely for three years on the mainland and controlled Hawaii for almost a year. Steve had never heard of them, but it was all before his time in Hawaii. Thinking over the dates, while Chin was working on taking down the Roberts' brothers, Steve had started his search for Victor and Anton Hesse.

The file ended with a final note on Chin's report. They had tracked down the Roberts brothers to a warehouse out in the middle of a forest, the building surrounded by HPD. John was running the point and Chin was holding the position on the side. They were preparing for a takedown until they were taken by surprise when Jason Roberts burst out the front doors finger holding down the trigger of his automatic weapon. He had killed three HPD officers and put a bullet in John before Chin got a shot, then four more. The murderous rampage had gone down in a hail of bullets. Supposedly, Mark Roberts was inside the warehouse while the entire thing was going down, but the warehouse exploded before HPD could answer, injuring almost the entire squad. Once the building was cleared safe, investigators when inside to check for any bodies and they found trace evidence of the bomb and a body beside it. They had enough evidence to assume it was the older brother. Jason Roberts had a permanent slab in the morgue while Mark Roberts was presumed dead in the warehouse explosion.

That was why Chin had recognized the IA agent. He was no IA agent at all. The name Mark Roberts was already fairly common, so a slight change and no one would know he was alive. But now Mark Roberts was back, posing as an IA officer, and was going to have revenge. And it seemed like Chin was at the top of his list.

There was no way Steve was going to let Roberts get what he wanted, so he flipped back to the report, looking for any clues to where Roberts would've taken Chin. With a little bit of luck and maybe even something else, Steve saw the damage report for the warehouse. It had taken extensive explosive and fire damages, but according to the report it had been cleared and it still had four walls and a roof. For a dead man looking for revenge, going back to the place where it all had started giving him the perfect hiding place. But now the dead man had someone after him, and this time there was no escape, no more faking deaths.

As soon as Steve got the address he grabbed his gear: guns, gear, badge, vest, and anything else he had regular packed in his truck and blew down the street. He flipped on his sirens, knowing things would go faster with any civilians out of the way. Steve reached the end of Chin's street before movement caught the corner of his eye, but by then it was too late. Having heard the sirens coming down the road one of the black government cars had been waiting in the driveway of another house, waiting. Just as Steve's truck passed that driveway, the driver slammed on the gas and t-boned Steve's truck. The metal made an awful crunching noise and the blue truck skidded to the side. Men swarmed out of the government car with weapons hot, their front bumper completely crushed. Steve struggled to catch his breath as his car finally slowed to a stop. The airbags had deployed, but the hit had already given the Commander a bad case of whiplash and knocked the air out of him. Before he knew what was happening, Roberts' men were at his door and they threw Steve out of the car. Steve's head bounced off the concrete and doubled the pain so he laid still, closing his eyes as he heard and felt the men surrounding him. Through the fogginess he figured out the position of the men, and moved his hand half an inch closer to his gun, waiting to move.

Right before he could attack, a gun went off right in front of him and he felt the bullet hit his chest, knocking the wind out of him. As Steve struggled to catch his breath through the blinding pain, the last thing he saw was the flash of a camera before his body went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head.

* * *

Chin spit out blood when the third blow to his jaw struck home. Roberts' men had been wailing on him since they reached the burnt warehouse, but the man himself was yet to lay a finger on Chin. Chin prayed that Steve figured out his clue, he needed to give his boss something to go off of without alerting Roberts. Which was difficult, because Mark was suspicious of everything, but by some miracle, it seemed to work. At least for now. They left Steve alive, right? That meant it had worked enough. Chin worked his jaw back and forth, making sure everything was still in working order as he made eye contact with Roberts.

"What do you want?" Chin knew the answer to the question, but he needed a distraction. If Steve had managed to get his clue, Chin needed to stall as much as possible. Roberts continued to stay silent, picking at the sleeves of his suit jacket. Chin was answered with another punch to the head, harder than the last of immediately sitting back up he hung at the side, seeing if the new angle gave his hands wiggle room. Duct tape held him to the chair and gave him no room and no chance to move around.

"You thought you were smart, tipping off your friend," Roberts spoke up for the first time. His men split down the middle, making room for him to walk right up to Chin. Through the pounding in his head and the swelling that puffed up around the outside of his eye, Chin maintained innocence and stared at Roberts.

"I don't know what you're talking about." This time it was Roberts who lashed out, the first display of emotion Chin had seen. The punch to the gut knocked the wind out of Chin, and he was left gasping for air.

"'_Tell John that I'm alright_'" Roberts mocked, and Chin felt his gut clench. "Does that happen to be the same John that you worked with, as in John McGarrett? A pretty big coincidence if I say so myself. After recognizing me then telling him to warn 'John'. Which would lead to my case file, which you probably have? But trust me, you weren't first on my list. I looked for John McGarrett when I got back. Unfortunately for me, some other lucky bastard offed him before I got a chance. So now, I don't know about you," Roberts hissed, dropping low so he was face to face with Chin, "I don't believe in coincidences."

Roberts stood back up, brushing his hands off as he left Chin in the stunned silence. "Either way, don't think about being rescued. I made sure your friend was taken care of, so we don't have to worry about him. You are alone out here." The words took a moment to register for Chin after the first shock of Roberts talking about John McGarrett, and when they did the uneasy feeling came back.

"What are you talking about? McGarrett?" Panic started to well up in Chin's chest, for Steve and that he may very well be trapped out here with a homicidal man looking for revenge.

"Ah, yes. The younger McGarrett. Well, we couldn't let him follow us now could we?" Roberts pulled his phone out of his back pocket and swiped a few times until he found what he wanted. Roberts turned the phone around and showed a picture of Steve McGarrett laying on the concrete, eyes shut with a small pool of blood under the back of his head. Chin was unable to pull away from the picture, shaking his head in disbelief. There was no way a couple of lowlifes like Roberts' men could take out the former Navy SEAL.

"Believe it or not, but you are alone here. No one is here to help you."

* * *

Steve opened his eyes mere seconds later, even though it felt like years. As soon as Steve opened his eyes he quickly shut them again, the bright light giving his already pounding head a splitting headache. His ribs pulled painfully with every intake of breath, and his chest was tight. And those were the biggest ones. The rest of his body felt like it had been run over by a truck, repeatedly. It almost had too. With the memories pouring back in, Steve wondered why he was alive. He heard the gunshot, saw the flash of the muzzle, felt the fiery impact the bullet made with his chest. How was he not dead? Gently, pushing back the wave of dizziness and nausea that washed over him, Steve lifted his head to stare at his shirt. In his truck, he only had the slim stealth bulletproof vest on, used for undercover work. Steve remembered throwing that on underneath his shirt in case he needed to go in stealthy, which in hindsight was one of the smartest decisions he had made. The men couldn't tell the difference, but it was a close call nonetheless. The undercover vest wasn't nearly as thick as the regular ones, so the point-blank shot would leave a large bruise. Steve could already feel it under his vest, the tight pain in his chest.

Foolishly thinking that he was dead, Roberts' men didn't clear Steve and take his gun out of its holster. Moving an inch by inch, Steve's hand made it up to his gun, flicking off the cover and then the safety. With a pause and a deep breath, Steve sat up in one smooth motion and made his move. Picking out the five targets, Steve acted on the element of surprise and shot at the remaining men. Six shots later all the men were down for the count, and probably not getting back up ever again. Steve stumbled to his feet, using the crushed truck to help him catch his balance when his legs decided to give out on him. Limping over to the bodies a few feet away, he stared at the men he had just killed. On the last man, he had to shoot twice, his concussion giving him a double vision and making his aim off, but he made it. Steve probably could've used them for information, but he was tired of the games. He already had the address, and he guessed that's where Roberts was taking Chin. There was always a chance that his hunch was wrong, but Steve was willing to take his chances.

Steve cursed as his leg gave out again as he made his way towards his truck, but he finally found his footing. Both cars were beaten up, but his truck was still drivable. Dented and hard to open the driver side door, but drivable. Leaving the bodies behind, he hopped in his truck and took off again, working extra hard to keep his pounding head focused on the road. This was Chin's life on the line, he didn't want to risk it more than he already had. Halfway through the ride, he remembered the bodies and flicked on the radio set up in his truck.

"_HPD this is Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett. I have shots fired and tangos down, pursuing the rest of them, over."_ He gave the operator Chin's address and he heard Duke's voice back over the line after the original operator relayed his situation.

"_Copy that Commander, men heading towards the crime scene and back up for you. How far are you from the rest? Over." _

"_About ten minutes out. And Duke, they have Chin."_ Silence carried over the line for a moment, before the police sergeant picked back up again.

"_Copy that, backup is twenty minutes behind you."_

"_Duke, you know I can't wait for them,"_ Steve said with a sigh, easily reaching the address of the warehouse. Surprisingly, it was not that far from Chin's house. At first, Steve thought Roberts would've picked somewhere farther from where they had taken Chin, but then he remembered that he was supposed to be dead. If Roberts thought he was dead, did Chin?

"_I know, but they are on their way regardless. Just make sure you get him out of there."_

"_Yes, sir. Over."_

Steve put the radio back in its place and focused back on the road. He had pushed all his pain to the back of his mind, so he could focus completely on the mission. Steve had learned that trick when he joined the Navy, and it had helped him more times than he could count. Steve parked the truck near the front of the road, so nobody would hear him driving him. Weaving in between trees, he walked a few minutes into the foliage before he found the warehouse. Strategically placed men walked around the building to keep an eye out for any unwanted guests. Steve knew if he wanted any chance of getting inside, those men he needed to take out from a distance.

Steve grinned when he found the perfect way to do it. A tree standing in front of Steve was the perfect climbing tree, one that a child would only dream of climbing. Thick sturdy branches evenly spread about for good handhold continued up, and those branches just wide enough to hold a person. Being up in the trees gave him good aim and good cover, so it was a win all around. The only problem was getting up there. His body would not appreciate the climb, but Steve knew it was his best option. His straining muscles regretted it about halfway through, the gun on his back bouncing with each new placeholder, but he pushed on. Finally, at the branch he wanted, Steve pulled out his rifle and slipped on the suppressor. He adjusted himself on the branch and took a quick look around the scope, fixing the measurements for wind and distance. Steve pulled back to shake his head, but when he looked back through the scope, the men had disappeared.

Slowly at first, but a stream of men flowed out of the warehouse followed by Mark Roberts himself. The pace grew faster, and as the seconds ticked by, some of the men farther in the back were full-on sprinting away from the burnt warehouse. Steve scanned the crowd for Chin, confirming the worst. Whatever they were running away from was inside the warehouse, where Chin was still inside. Steve swore aloud as he swung his gun around onto his back and climbed down the tree. He had no idea how much time he had to get Chin and get out or even what was inside, so he left Roberts and his men alone. With HPD coming along soon, there would be no running away.

Weaving in between trees, Steve knew how Roberts felt. It was easy to move around knowing that everyone thought you were dead and weren't looking for you. Steve made it to the warehouse door in record time despite his injuries but stopping right at the door. Steve wanted nothing more than to just whip the door open and barge in, but if there were traps, it would mean the end for both him and Chin. Holding off on all of his instincts, Steve checked the bottom and along the sides, looking for any wires or trips that could blast the door. Finding none he gently eased opened the door, using the flashlight on his gun to get a check on the insides. With no pressure plate right inside the door, he stepped inside the dim warehouse.

Dust immediately assaulted his nose and lungs, and he held back the cough that came up with it. The contrast between the bright Saturday and the near pitch black in the building was astounding, his flashing being the only thing giving off light. Even with various holes and missing walls apart from the warehouse, almost no outside light filtered in. He kept his gun in one hand and pulled out a real flashlight, the stronger beam bouncing over the floor and the walls, seeing nobody.

"Chin?" Steve called out, something between a whisper and a yell, keeping close to the wall.

"Steve?" Chin called back, instantly confused. "I'm up here!" Steve moved the flashlight until he found a balcony-type second floor. In the middle of the hanging walkway, he found Chin, tied up to a chair blinking in the light.

"I'm coming to you, hold on." Chin couldn't hold back a small smile. It wasn't like he _could_ go anywhere. He had worked on the duct tape as much as possible, but the most he got was a few centimeters of room. He continued to pull on them as he heard the metal clang of Steve climbing up the ladder. A second later Steve's hand was on his shoulder, and the flashlight pointed up towards the ceiling so they could see each other without shining directly into sensitive eyes. Steve sighed in relief as he checked over Chin, finding no major injuries except for a possible concussion. While doing this, Chin took a look at Steve, spotting the blood on his boss' forehead, face twisted in relief and surprise. Chin trusted his boss one hundred percent and he knew better than to trust a picture from Roberts, but it looked so real. Chin had thought that Steve had been taken down.

"What?" Steve mumbled around the flashlight in his mouth, catching the look on Chin's face. Steve had taken his knife out and was working on whacking away the duct tape keeping Chin to the chair.

"Well… they told me you were dead. That they killed you. And they showed a picture..." Steve could hear the doubt in his friend's voice, but Steve didn't blame him.

"Trust me, they tried. But they got a little sloppy. Let's just get you out of here." As Steve moved to the backside of the chair, his hand brushed up against something cool and metal He took the flashlight out of his mouth and played the light over it, swearing when he recognized the object. A bomb sat behind Chin, colorful wires running across the top of it. There was a little latch and Steve flipped it open with his knife, bringing out the red glow of the countdown. Steve didn't swear much now as a civilian cop, but in moments like those his sailor's mouth slipped through.

"Alright, we gotta get out of here, we've got less than a minute left," Steve rushed, using his knife to cut off the rest of the duct tape. Now he understood why all of Roberts's men were running away. They were leaving the warehouse to blow up a second time but keeping Chin inside. The blinking red light flashed mockingly as time slowly ran out. With thirty seconds left Steve had gotten the duct tape off enough for Chin to get off the chair.

"Jump and roll, alright?" There was no time for them to run over to the ladder and climb down and the second floor wasn't all that far from the ground. Only about ten feet in the air was a perfectly manageable fall if you knew how to land right. Or if you hadn't been in a car crash less than an hour beforehand. Ignoring all of the what-ifs and questions on whether or not it would work, the two Five-0 men jumped, rolling over when they hit the ground. With Steve up first, he grabbed Chin's arm and him back to his feet and they sprinted out the door. They had just gotten through the front door when the timer hit zero. For a second, nothing happened and Steve thought it malfunctioned. But there was no way he was stopping to check.

Suddenly, a loud crack filled the air, followed by an explosion with enough force to obliterate the warehouse and throw the two men forward. As soon as he hit the ground, Steve moved so he was covering Chin as much as possible, waiting for the debris to stop falling and the fire to stop biting at their backs. Through ringing ears, he heard the sirens of HPD and the shouts of their fellow officers. Once he thought they were clear, Steve rolled off of Chin and landed on his back, breathing in the fresh air deeply. Chin laid next to him, staring at the sky. Both thought of the disaster they just avoided, and it could've gone way worse than it did.

"Let's not bring it up to Kono when she gets back," Chin cracked, only half-joking. His cousin was out visiting some relatives, and he didn't want to make her leave early or worry. Steve laughed aloud, slowly getting to his feet while giving Chin a hand up.

"I won't tell her as long as you don't tell Danny." Steve's partner was enjoying some time away in New Jersey, and he didn't want to start that rant either. The men shared another laugh, watching as HPD surrounded Roberts and his men.

"Steve." Steve turned and faced Chin, taking the hand that was outstretched to him. "Mahalo, brother."


	2. Kono

**Wow, it's so much easier to actually post chapters on time when they are already written. What a concept. Anyway, here we go with the next part, this one is a little shorter but it's just as exciting. **

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**Nycngl: Thanks for reviewing! Here's the next chapter for ya!**

**Alrighty, guys here you go, and I will try to post the next one soon. Leave a review, I love hearing what you guys think, it really makes my day. **

* * *

**Kono**

_**Can Anybody Hear Me by Meredith Andrews and Jeremy Jordan's cover of Losing My Mind**_

* * *

Kono kept her eyes peeled as she waltzed around the party, deliberately making her steps slow. She watched as she drew eyes from everyone around her, catching some of the glances with a wink. The more attention she drew, the better. Making her way through the crowd, she made sure to keep a special watch on her target, looking up every once and a while to make it seem like she was interested, but not _too_ interested. He needed to initiate contact, not the other way around. Her walking over and starting the conversation was too suspicious.

Once Alistar Drake had targeted Oahu for his business, elite neighborhoods had burst into chaos. His high-priced cocaine, locally known as "snow" had spread through the rich, paying top dollar for just a gram of the hit. Right, and left wealthy neighborhoods were overrun with Drake's product, blowing out thousands of dollars for the cocaine. As soon as his product got popular, Drake upped his prices and soon the wealthy were spending millions on the smallest hit. Families blew through the money and tore relationships apart. Everything stayed mostly under the radar and out of sight from the police until one millionaire, Dominic Whitley walked out of his house in his birthday suit and ran into one of the city's drug store and destroyed the place, before falling unconscious and dying on the scene. Media caught wind of the story, but that didn't stop the damage. After Whitley's death, two more millionaires had a psychotic break and died immediately before the governor contacted Five-0. One of the millionaires had been a big supporter of the governor's office, and losing the support was a big loss.

Finding Alistar Drake wasn't so much of the problem. He wasn't exactly hiding. But connecting him to the evidence was the tricky part. An MI-6 agent had come over from England and gave Five-0 additional resources on Drake, but nothing ever stuck. The man had no connection to any of his products, but everyone knew it was him. Brute force and interrogation wasn't an option, none of his men would talk and there would be nothing to hold them on. Their best shot was going undercover.

Alistar Drake rarely trusted anyone, even his second in command only rose to that spot after years of working for him. However, Drake had a soft spot for women, much like many of his type. They needed to get into Drake's inner circle, and Kono was their best shot. Kono didn't mind going undercover, sometimes she really enjoyed it. There was always a sense of danger, but that came with being a cop in the first place. But going undercover was even more dangerous than Five-0's day to day jobs. One slip up and the operation could be blown, or she could be killed. It was dangerous, but that's what Kono liked about it. Besides, dressing up and pretending to be someone else was always exciting. As dangerous as it could be, Kono was never worried. She had three amazing - sometimes overprotective - men watching her back: her cool and collected cousin that would turn up the heat the instant Kono was threatened, a fiery spitball Jersey detective equipped with that fighting spirit, and a former Navy SEAL that could take down a room of men in mere seconds. If anything went wrong, she knew she'd be alright.

"_You doing alright in there, Kono?" _Almost on cue, Steve's voice came over the line and Kono snorted. She brought the glass of wine to hide her mouth as she replied to her concerned boss, knowing that the rest of Five-0 was waiting just as anxiously to hear her answer.

"I'm fine, boss. I think Drake has finally got some eyes for me. I might go in soon."

"_In a dress like that babe, I don't know how he doesn't," _Danny gushed and Kono felt the tiniest blush rise up in her cheeks. Her favorite part of the undercover was getting to dress up. She got to pick out all her clothes and with the Five-0's immunity and means, she had an open checkbook. Most of Kono's dresses she had picked out had been used a few too many times and got ripped up, so she splurged and bought some new clothes. She would never admit it, but she had itching to use it so the undercover case was the perfect opportunity. Kono knew the chances of this dress getting ripped up like the rest of them was high, but she could get one good night out of it.

Catching Drake's eyes, Kono made sure to put a little more sway in her hips. The mermaid cut of the black and white vertical striped dress was tight around her waist, but a slit up the side gave her enough movement to move around as needed. It was also sleeveless, leaving her arms open for a punch should the occasion arise. Add the open back, the special touch Kono loved, and a pair of strappy black heels, she was the center of attention. Specifically, Alistair Drake's attention.

Five-0 had tracked Drake down to a wealthy club where most of his clients went through, and that's where Kono came in. A lonely girl at an exclusive bar hoping for a fix would be enough to grab Drake's attention. With his attention, all Kono had to do was get Drake to hand her the drugs and Five-0 could take him down.

"Guys, shut up. I think I'm being called over," Kono hissed as she pretended to take another drink, and the boys immediately quieted. The boys of Five-0 set up their stakeout from a painting van across the street. There was construction going in the surrounding buildings so there was no reason for Drake to get suspicious. To get ears inside of the place they had to get creative. Most gangs and drug lords had caught on to the old hiding places and were becoming too suspicious. So Five-0 had Charlie whip up a plastic wire, untraceable by metal detectors and stick inside the sole of Kono's heel. Specifically programmed, the bug tuned out the sound of footsteps and focused on conversations.

From the beginning, Steve, Danny, and Chin had been nervous about sending Kono in. Alistair Drake was one of the most ruthless drug lords they had been up against, and he wasn't known for being humane. Even though they had gotten her in the club flawlessly - the fake identity working without a hitch - there was always a chance for things to go wrong. Chin had hacked into the security cameras inside the club and the men huddled around the computer screen, following Kono as she lazily walked around. They watched her as she started short conversations, never saying much and never staying long, but working her way towards Drake.

Steve was the most nervous of them all. He was the one who picked Kono to go undercover. While he couldn't get to Drake the same way she could, he could've gone in and gotten information a different way. He had plenty of undercover experience, there would be no need to risk Kono's life to try and take down a man that avoided jail time for the last three decades. But at the same time, Kono was all up for being undercover and Steve knew that she was perfectly capable. She had excellent acting skills, was a skilled liar, and had enough charisma to get out of sticky situations. He trusted her 100%, but he had the right to be nervous.

Kono sat on a stool at the edge of the bar, asking the bartender for a small shot of whiskey. She hadn't touched her wine from earlier, only taking small sips to keep up the act and dumping out the rest when she approached the bar. Really drinking would only compromise her judgment and she needed to be at her best.

"Make it two," a heavily accented voice behind her ordered the bartender, who nodded without a second glance. Two glasses with a shot of whiskey were set in front of them, and Kono picked up her glass without meeting eyes with the man next to her.

"What are you doing here, love?" Drake purred, swirling the liquid around in his glass before taking a tiny sip. He was clearly already intoxicated, but he didn't have a care in the world. He saw a beautiful woman sitting alone at the bar, he just _had_ to check it out. Kono took a sip of her own, her eyes slowly working their way up his body until their eyes met. Drake smiled with alarmingly bright teeth, giving Kono his own once over that lasted just a bit too long.

"Oh, I don't know. Needed to get out of my head I guess. Had a rough couple of days," Kono said with a small pout, trying to play on the sympathy card and being the metaphorical damsel in distress.

"Well, in that case, calls for a few more of these. The perfect way to get out of your head." Drake, ever the knight in shining armor, held his hand up for the bartender to bring over two more shots, even though they hadn't finished the first one. Kono had avoided drinking for as long as possible, but she guessed this was when it counted. Drake raised his glass first and Kono matched it, clinking their glasses together and downing the shot in one gulp.

Kono instantly felt her mind go into a slight buzz, but she pushed it aside. She had eaten beforehand and had a high tolerance for alcohol, so she was good for a few more. After the third short she finally started to feel the alcohol but wasn't as wasted as Drake. Kono wasn't at the euphoric stage yet, but Drake was plastered. His arms flailed as he talked, and his eyes would shut for a few minutes at a time. When they opened a second later he ordered another round of drinks, which Kono declined. She couldn't afford to drink much more and risk compromising the mission. Unfortunately, Drake noticed with his eyebrows raised in surprise. If Kono wanted to get to the drugs, she had to move fast, before Drake made her or he passed out from being too drunk.

"No this doesn't cut it. I need something to _really_ get out of my head. Something _stronger_, if you know what I mean," Kono dropped her voice to just above a whisper. Drake had to lean in close to hear her above the music, but in that second he seemed to sober up almost immediately. He pulled back to stare at her, and Kono threw on her best loopy smile. Drake's hard exterior melted again, and he nodded, glancing around to make sure no one else was listening.

"I have a few friends, they can hook you up if-" Kono looked around herself before cutting him off.

"No, I don't trust your friends, I don't know them. I need it from you," she played this off as cool as possible, and inside the painter's van, three men waited with bated breath. This was it.

"But you don't know me either," Drake said with his eyebrow raised again. Kono knew she had to sell this, no matter how bad he smelled and how disgusting he was, she needed to pull this off.

"Well, I'm sure we can fix _that_," Kono whispered, letting her finger trace down his shoulder to the top button of his shirt, fiddling with it. Drake was skeptical, but after a few seconds of Kono playing with his shirt, he gave in and nodded.

"Alright, I can get you some." Inside the van, the rest of Five-0 let exhaled loudly, and Kono let her smile spread wide across her face.

"Perfect!" She squealed, and Drake stood up to offer his hand.

"Follow me, love." Kono made sure to accidentally fall into Drake to enunciate her "drunkenness" and walked tipsy-turvy, while she took notice of everything else. It seemed like both people were pretending because while Kono was stumbling harder to pretend she was drunk, all the signs Drake showed of being drunk were also gone. He walked in a perfectly straight line practically dragging Kono behind him. Fighting her instincts, Kono let him drag her through the crowd and past a curtain. He nodded once to the bouncer and they were let behind the heavy sheet.

"Is there a camera in there?" Steve asked worriedly as soon as they saw Kono disappear behind the curtain. Chin typed furiously on the computer but shook his head.

"No, there are no electronics coming in or out of the structuring, and I can't get into any of the phones. We're going to have to rely on the bug." Steve didn't like the sound of that, but he wasn't left with anything else.

Kono let Drake take her into the back room without any trouble, but she knew this was going downhill fast. Instead of seeing a secret back room where the dealing was done, she was brought into a dusty gray warehouse connected to the back of the club. But not only that, her mind buzzed more than it should've. She avoided drinking too much, and only drank when Drake asked for more. Asked for more, which was given from under the counter, from the bartender who was probably on Drake's payroll. Rookie mistake, and Kono had fallen for it. Shaking through the effects of a possible drug, she stared at the men who were standing around the warehouse. She didn't recognize any of them at face value, but she knew she was in the right place. Suits from expensive tailors, the smell of hundred dollar cologne and perfumes. The telltale sign of near insanity and needle marks on the inside of arms. Around them were Drake's armed guards, making sure everyone was in order. For a moment Kono thought Drake was going to talk to them and get with her in a minute, but she had no luck. Drake threw her on the ground and she hit the concrete bonelessly. Later she would say she was doing it to protect her cover, but the truth was whatever was in her drink was really taking its toll.

"What's happening?" She asked, her voice unintentionally slurring as she pushed herself up on her elbows. Drake paced back and forth while one of the guards, a heavily tattooed man she instantly nicknamed Tattoo walked forward and held a gun to her forehead. As soon as the metal pressed against her skin, she couldn't help but let out a chuckle. _Tattoo. What a funny name_. At this point, she figured her cover was blown, but she didn't want to blow it completely. Before the mission, they had come up with a way to get the word out to Five-0 in case things went badly, as long as Drake wasn't paying too much attention to her speech.

"Where are we? It's too cold out here, you should've told me to bring my jacket."

As soon as Steve heard those words being spoken, he knew he never should've sent her in there. He swore aloud and threw off his headphones. Danny watched just as worried, but he knew his partner would do something stupid.

"Steve, let's not rush in just yet. She used the code word, but that means she doesn't want to blow her cover yet. We can still-" Steve shook his head adamantly.

"No, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to help her without breaking cover. I'll make up something on the way, and I'll get her out of there." He undid the straps to his vest revealing the suit he had worn in precaution. If something went south or they needed him to step in, Steve would be properly dressed for the event.

"Keep monitoring the audio for now, and keep me patched in. I'll get in there, and if she says the second word then bring in the cavalry. If not, I'll get her out of there." Danny and Chin watched as Steve climbed out of the back of the van and headed towards the club.

Steve flashed his fake ID to the bouncer and got in without trouble, and he beelined for the curtain in the back. Over his comm, he heard the conversation between Drake and the unknown buyers in the room in rapid Spanish.

"_Ok, so which one of you gits got the police involved?! I warned you about the consequences if the police got involved."_

"_It wasn't me, I swear!"_

"_Please, no, it wasn't us!"_

"_We know the consequences! We didn't call the cops!"_

"_I don't care. One of you did it, and if you don't fess up, you will be responsible for her death. I don't want one bloody person to know I'm connected to this. I'll kill her, and then I'll kill every single one of you."_ Drake's threat was dangerous, and Steve knew he was running out of time. He reached the curtain and threw it aside, only to get stopped in his tracks by the bouncer. Steve stared down at the hand on his chest, keeping him back.

"Alistair Drake knows me, he wants me back there." There was no sugarcoating, no making up some lie about he needed to find the bathroom and the only one was back there. Kono was made, and he needed to get Kono out. Plain and simple, the name alone should've been enough to get him through. But it wasn't. The bouncer stayed silent as he shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. There was no need for words at the moment, it was clear. Steve was not getting through. Before Steve could open his mouth for another reason to get in, Drake and Kono's voice came over the comms.

"_I'm sorry, love, but you have to go."_

"_Huh? Go where? I don't know what you're talking about."_

"_It doesn't matter. I promise this won't hurt a bit."_

"_But please, I haven't said goodnight to my kids yet!"_

There it was. If Kono talked about kids she needed extraction right then. Steve had no more time to deal with the unmoving bouncer, so he went with his first instinct. Steve kneed the man right between the legs and hit him with a strong uppercut the second he fell forward. The level-headed bouncer was out before he even hit the ground. Steve just pushed open the door just as a gunshot rang over the line. All of the Five-0 men cried out at the same time.

"_KONO_!"

Steve slid his gun out from the back of his waistband and shot out the three druggies "guarding" the door in a matter of seconds. The back building was entirely made of concrete and completely open, giving him visibility but no cover. In a quick glance, he spotted six guards plus Drake, five more buyers, and Kono laying on the floor, red staining the white of her dress as she laid motionless. In a second Steve was overcome by rage and he couldn't think of anything else.

Now they had enough evidence to put Drake away, but if he killed Kono Steve didn't know if it was worth it to keep him alive. In the back of his head and probably in his comm he heard Danny say to not do anything stupid, but he couldn't leave Kono on her own. Besides, his own gunshots gave away his cover and there was no place to hide. The only way out was to fight back. Steve fired three more shots at the men, each on his mark before Steve had to drop to the floor to avoid the hail of bullets shot in response. He rolled to the right and took another shot taking down one more man. He leaped to his feet but froze when he heard the click of a hammer against the back of his head.

"Drop the gun_,"_ the voice commanded, but Steve wasn't ready to listen just yet. He leaned down slowly to act like he was putting his gun on the floor. As soon as the metal touched the ground, Steve kicked back with his leg and grabbed the man's collar. He whipped around and used the guard as a human shield just as the remaining guards fired at him, hitting their own man instead. Steve felt each impact, but he was protected from the brunt of the damage and Steve shot the remaining guards in the distraction.

"You really should've listened to him," Drake's voice floated over to Steve and the former SEAL followed the voice with his gun and he saw Drake propping up Kono against his own body, gun to Kono's head. She was the human shield, much like Steve did seconds ago.

"It's so sad someone as pretty as her has to pay the price," Drake sighed, cocking the gun and putting more pressure on the trigger. Steve tensed and kept his gun pointed at Drake while his eyes never left Kono's. Slightly dulled from possible drugs and gunshot wound, Kono's eyes met his without a problem. In the midst of chaos, she landed on the familiarity of her boss. Steve's eyes softened as he caught her eyes, all but ignoring Drake.

"_Do you trust me?"_ Steve mouthed as Drake kept rambling on about how he won. Kono's eyes widened then hardened in determination.

"_With my life,"_ She replied, and Steve nodded once. Right as Drake finished his speech, his fingers tightened on the trigger and Kono closed her eyes. She trusted her boss, and she knew he would do everything he could to get her out. There was no need to worry. Before Drake could pull the trigger, Steve adjusted his aim, just off to the left. With an exhale he pulled the trigger and the bullet whizzed mere inches from Kono's head, making a bullet hole in between the eyes of Alistair Drake.

The second after he pulled the trigger, HPD swarmed through the doors led by Chin and Danny. Shouts filled the warehouse until they saw Steve and Kono standing together, breathing heavily. Relieved, Danny dropped his gun back into its holster and ran a hand through his hair as he looked around at the damage.

"Did you do this?" He said, waving his hand to motion to the bodies sprawled out on the floor. Steve was silent as he looked over the same a sheepish smile spread over his face.

"Steve, we were only thirty seconds behind you, so I ask again. You did this?" Steve nodded once and Danny shook his head in amazement. Feeling the weight in his arms, Steve turned his attention to Kono, whose face was tight in pain and exhaustion all pulled together with a crumpled smile.

"You alright?" Steve asked, leaning down as Kono sank into Steve. She shut her eyes for a moment, shrugging with one good shoulder. Red stained the top of her shoulder where the bullet grazed the top of her collarbone.

"I'm fine, Steve." Their eyes met and Steve nodded, letting Kono go as Chin ran over to her and gave her a tight hug. Wary of her injured side he held her close and talked with her quietly for a few minutes. When he saw the blood on her dress his anxiety levels jumped to a new level but her saying it was just a graze did nothing to calm his nerves. Danny turned and gave Kono a quick hug before turning to Steve.

"Are you alright, Steven? Didn't get a fresh new bullet hole or anything?" Danny cracked, only half-joking.

"I'm fine, Danno. It was just… close."

"That it was, partner. But you guys did good. Kono did good."

HPD handled the area, taking possession of the drugs handled in the bag, taking the bodies and rounding up the bystanders inside. Five-0 stayed huddled together in the middle of the mess, staying close to one another. They heard calls of paramedics coming to the warehouse and Kono swayed. She had her hand pressed against the graze and Chin grabbed her arm to help steady her.

"You alright, cuz?"

"I'm fine, just need to get that fixed. And take a nap. A nap sounds good right about now." The team laughed. They all needed a nap, and they deserved it. Steve moved so he was on the other side of Kono, providing extra support.

"You did good, kid. Now let's get you home," Steve said gently, and Kono smiled.

"You got it, boss."


	3. Catherine

**Ok, this one took a long time, but this is also really long. This is a really intense chapter, lots of fighting and violence and things, but I have that rating up anyway. This is one of the saddest things I've written in a while, but it is good. At least I think so. Warning: character death (but not a main) This one has more characters than just Catherine, but she's in here too.**

**REVIEWS:**

**Nycgnl: I'm working on it bro, and here you go. Hope I didn't make you wait _too_ long...**

**Alright, guys enjoy this intense chapter, and let me know what you think!**

* * *

**Catherine**

_**Need You Now by Plumb and Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi**_

* * *

"Ok, when?" Steve stayed silent, his face slowly taking on what Danny called his 'aneurysm' face. Most of the time it was good-natured teasing, but not this time. Steve sat military straight in his office chair, posture reflecting the Navy officer he was on the phone with.

"Of course, Captain. Let me gather my men, and we'll be on base in four hours." Steve waited for the captain's reply, nodded even though he knew it couldn't be seen.

"Yes, thank you, sir. Goodnight, sir." Just as Steve finished the phone call Danny knocked on the door and Steve waved him in. As soon as Danny saw the serious conversation over the phone Steve was having, he knew something was wrong. Steve was a serious person, but not many things made him look as anxious as he did now. Danny eased himself into the chair across Steve's desk and leaned close as the Lieutenant Commander let his face fall into his hands. Five-0 had gotten into the office early Friday morning to get a headstart on some paperwork before the weekend, and since then the day just went downhill. The coffee machine had broken down leaving the members cranky without their daily dose of caffeine, all the staplers seemed to run out of staples at the same time, Danny got four papercuts, Chin spilled water on his files, and Kono managed to knock all her folders off her desk and redecorate the floor with them. The only one seemingly missed by all the bad luck was Steve, and he had gotten a few dirty looks for it.

However, just as the clock hit ten and Danny had gotten his fifth papercut, Steve got the phone call. The face that had just been laughing dropped into seriousness in two seconds flat, and he excused himself to talk in his office. The rest of Five-0 watched through the window separating them from their boss, the worry radiating through the thin walls. They all had the same feeling. With the look Steve had on his face, nothing good was coming out of that phone call. When Steve had finally stopped pacing around his office and sat in his chair, Danny made his move.

"What's up?" Danny broke the silence, concern growing when Steve didn't answer right away. Steve continued to keep his hands over his eyes and his head hung low towards the desk.

"Catherine's missing."

"What?!" Danny was up like a shot, hands pressed on Steve's desk. "When?"

"A few days ago. She had been called up for a black ops mission in Angola a week ago. It was going well until they lost contact with the team two days ago. The team leader made contact today and gave them an update. They were tracking a rebel Hezbollah group that made a base in Southern Angola. They said as soon as they got close, the Hezbollah group was just waiting for them and they got ambushed. Only two of them escape. Three were killed and the other four, including Catherine, were taken hostage."

Danny fell back into his chair and stayed silent as Steve stood up. He looked lost for a moment, staring blankly at the top of his desk before he seemed to remember what he was doing. Movements were almost mechanical and he went drawer by drawer, pulling out any supplies he could need. A military backpack was pulled from the cabinet behind his desk - a go-bag - and he dropped it beside him. It was already packed with the necessities, all he needed were a few more add-ons from Five-0's supplies and he would be ready to go.

"And the phone call?" Danny asked, breaking the tense silence.

"Captain Christopher Hudson, he was one of my old CO's. He was heading the mission, and he knew about me and Catherine. His hands are tied, and he owed me a favor, so he let me know about Catherine. My weekend for reserves is coming up anyway, so I'm going to Angola."

"What?!"

"Danny, you heard me. I'm taking some of my SEAL buddies and we're running an unofficial rescue mission to get Catherine and the rest of the hostages back. Navy can't do anything because technically the mission doesn't exist. We aren't even supposed to be in Angola right now."

"Even if the mission doesn't exist, can't they send in one of the actual SEAL teams? Isn't that what they do, cut through all the red tape and things like that?" Steve stopped packing up supplies and looked at Danny with a sad smile. He knew what his partner was getting at. It wasn't fair. But it was also Catherine.

"I told you. This is a black ops mission. They don't exist, and they definitely don't have back up. The only reason I even know about this is that Hudson owed me a favor. Catherine didn't even say anything. She's not officially Navy anymore either, so the mission does not exist. And it can't exist, otherwise, a lot more could be at stake."

"That still doesn't explain why they take from the reserves!" Danny exploded, and Steve had to keep his own emotions in check.

"Danny you're missing the point. They aren't pulling me out of the reserves. They aren't making me do this. Nobody is being forced back into serving. _I _chose this. It's Catherine. She's out there, and I need to get her back." Danny was surprised at the outburst, but it finally clicked. That didn't mean he had to like it. By the time Danny finally understood it all, Steve had already walked out of his office and into the main portion of the Five-0 office. Chin and Kono were talking and laughing to themselves about something around the computer table when Danny talked to Steve's back.

"Fine then, your choice. But we're coming with you," Danny said, and Chin and Kono instantly jumped in.

"Of course we are."

"Where are we heading, boss?"

"No." There was no hesitation as Steve shot down their offers. He was grateful for the support from his team, and he knew he could count on them in a heartbeat. But this was different. It wasn't running through the back alleys of sunny Hawaii chasing some dude in a wide-open area in good visibility area. This was nothing they had ever trained for. Not only that, but it was Catherine. Steve knew his team loved Catherine, but Steve already had one life on the line. He wouldn't be able to concentrate on saving Catherine if he had to focus on the safety of the rest of his team. Besides, the mission wasn't even sanctioned, so if something went wrong, they weren't associated with the government, and no one would be able to tell anyone what happened. Steve didn't want to be the reason there was one less cousin, or Grace lost a father.

"You're not allowed to say no, Steven. We're not going to let you go on some… some _suicide_ mission in the middle of Africa all by yourself." Steve stopped walking and put a hand on Danny's shoulder, stopping the man's rant before it even started.

"I'll be fine, Danno. Besides, I'm not going to be alone. I'm calling some of my SEAL team buddies to help out. We were on the same team for a few years, they know what they are doing. And I need you guys here on a more important issue."

"Whatever you need." Danny wasn't any less concerned and still wanted to be there to watch his partner's back, but he followed Steve to the table in the center of the room. Five-0 gathered around it, listening to Steve intently.

"I need this done under wraps. Nobody else can know about this. This is black ops, the mission doesn't exist. It never did. There is no way Hezbollah just happened to hear about it."

"So you think someone leaked it to them," Chin finished for him. Face set, Steve nodded.

"I need you to find the leak. If I'm getting back the hostages I can't look for the leak so I'm trusting you guys. Talk only to Captain Hudson, and only when you found out who the leak is. The last thing we need is Hezbollah finding out that more Americans are coming. Hudson's number is on my desk, so only contact him once you find the mole. I don't know if I will be able to contact home at all, but if I have a chance I will try. If all goes well, I'll be back in the office by Monday."

"And if it doesn't go well?" Danny didn't want to ask the question, but he needed to know. Steve knew the look on Danny's face. Steve knew this was going to be hard, but it had to be done.

"Then you're in charge." Danny's mouth dropped open at the blunt statement, looking at Steve's face for any sign of joking. But the look that Steve gave him back was completely serious. Steve knew it was dramatic and probably uncalled for, but he needed to know that they had to move on in case he didn't come back. "But it won't come to that. We'll go in, get the hostages and Catherine, and get out. Piece of cake."

"But I won't come to that. I promise. We'll go in, get the hostages and Catherine, and get out. I'll be back in no time." Steve had slung his full backpack over one shoulder, giving one last look at his team as we walked out the door. He couldn't help but smile at the team he loved.

"Be good, guys. Danno, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

Danny could only shake his head and sigh as Steve left the office laughing. Danny let that scene become a memory concern eating away at him. Now he just hoped this wasn't the last time he heard Steve laugh or even the last time he saw Steve alive.

* * *

The next day, a cargo plane carrying humanitarian supplies touched down on a landing strip in a small airport on the outskirts of Angola. The missionary group manning the plane rolled down the carts of medical supplies, food, and water. Following right behind five former SEALs led by Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett took their gear and loaded up in the jeeps waiting for them. Their 'guide', an foreign intelligence operator named Williem greeted them silently. The process was seamless as the SEALs loaded up and moved out.

In the head jeep, Steve sat in the passenger side while Williem drove. Steve made sure to keep his gun up close to check for threats in the surroundings. Gathering the men from his old team to help him on an unsanctioned mission was easier than expected, and he was grateful for it. Only one other man had been in Hawaii, so the rest he called to the mainland to ask for help. Steve had made the first flight up where everyone met in DC before hitching a ride on a cargo plane for Angola.

In the seat behind Steve was his fellow Hawaiian, Kai Hane. Hane, affectionately called Fish for his insane ability to swim, was the resident sniper for the mission. Before his rank got moved up it was Steve's job, but now he headed the mission, so they needed another sniper. Fish stood up on the seat, the bars on the jeep cage holding up his gun so it made it easier to get a better view. A backward ballcap sat snugly on his forehead. He never went anywhere without his lucky hat, a black baseball cap with Hawaii written across the front. With the number of holes and rips in it from too many close calls, Steve almost wondered how it was still alive, but it was the tradition. Plus, Fish always had at least three backup hats in the case that his favorite hat finally died. It was always better to be prepared.

In the second jeep following close behind Ty Andrews, otherwise known as Wheels, drove. A mechanic in another life, he knew just about everything there was to know about vehicles and mechanics. He also drove like he was a NASCAR racer, so most people were required to sign a form recognizing their will if they wanted to get in the car with him. In the passenger was Charles "Chuckles" Parker, named for his uncanny laugh and his mop of bright red hair, for which he was often mistaken for the Chucky doll. His short stature normally was a disadvantage in combat situations, but he made up for it in people skills He could make a friend out of anyone, and specifically he could run his mouth a mile a minute just to get information. Being fluent in close to seven languages, Chuckles could talk them out of any situation. Dawson Madrid, better known as Sticks was next. He was the biggest one of them all, nearly 6'8" and over 200 pounds. He mostly stayed silent unless it was necessary to speak, and he always had a toothpick in his mouth. He had an unnatural ability to never get stabbed, poked, or choke on the toothpicks, even when he was out on a mission. His never-ending supply came out of seemingly nowhere, and bets had been placed on who could find where he kept them all. None of the bets were ever cashed. So while he was mostly silent, he was always better at throwing a punch when Charles couldn't talk their way out. Last but not least Joshua Jones was called Indiana Jones because of his last name and his daredevil nature. Jones always had some high risk, extravagant plan in case something went south. It almost always involved explosives and fire. Some might've called Jones crazy or a pyromaniac. But he was a good man. However, his plans were still always the last resort. There was a general rule: if Chuckles couldn't talk them out of a sticky situation, and Sticks couldn't punch their way out, then Jones could blow it sky-high.

Steve had been on teams with all of them individually over the years before he picked them all for his own team. They had grown close and kept in touch when they left the Navy, making sure to check in every once and awhile. So when Steve called them up asking for assistance they were eager to help out. Right before they loaded up in the jeeps, Steve placed a call back to Five-0 headquarters to see how his other team was doing. Part of him said that was the only reason, but something inside of him wanted to let them know he had landed safely and were getting ready to leave. It was a weird feeling. Steve never had anyone back at home waiting for him to come back. He had always been on his own. Now he had people waiting for him to come back, safely and in one piece, which just added another element of surprise. But Steve had been right, he could hear the relief in Danny's voice over the phone when Steve said they landed safely. They also had good news for him and picked up some leads. Chin was holding down the fort, using the computer to go through financials and communications to look for anything suspicious. Danny and Kono were out tracking down the few suspects they had, but nothing seemed to pan out yet. But they swore to find the leak, as long as it meant Steve and Catherine coming home safely. And Steve believed them.

"We're about fifteen minutes out from where we think the base is," Williem shouted over the wind and Steve nodded.

"Ok, cut the engines ten minutes out, we'll walk the rest." Williem saluted and pushed the gas pedal to the floor, the rough terrain making it a bumpy ride. Angola was pretty populated in the towns, but out in the middle of the forest where they were driving, there was no civilization. It was pure nature, and if Steve had been there for any other reason than a mission, he probably would've taken a moment to appreciate the beauty around him. If he wanted this mission to go smoothly, he needed to be at the top of his game. But he couldn't stop thinking about home. He had been joking when he told Danny that he'd be in charge if Steve didn't come back. Thinking more into the mission, and Steve realized it was very well a possibility he wouldn't be coming back. No one ever knew. There was always a chance that someone didn't go home. For the first time since he had joined the Navy, part of him hoped that it wouldn't be him.

When they reached the ten-minute mark, the jeeps were turned off and the SEALs unloaded. All the gear was their own, but it wasn't an issue. Steve had access to all of the Five-0 supplies, and the rest of the SEALs all kept most of their old supplies, so no one came empty-handed. Heavy vests back from their deployment days were strapped on each man, protecting the most vital organs from bullets. Other than that they were dressed in normal clothes with good movement, dark colors to blend in, and plenty of pockets. Stealth was the objective in this mission, because if they lost that they didn't have the manpower or the supplies to survive a firefight. A small jar of black and green paint was passed around, the mixture spread on faces and arms to blend make their skin blend in even more. As soon as they were geared up, Steve gathered everyone around the back jeep, laying out the map Williem had given him and explaining the plan.

"Alright boys, stealth is the point here. Move quiet, mark your targets, watch the bullets. Be quick and efficient, but if it comes down to being either hidden or fast, stay hidden. The faster we get in and out the better. We've got supplies but conserve ammo, if we run out we're done. The rest of this stretch we're gonna walk, we don't want them to hear the jeeps. Other than that, I have nothing for you. We are essentially going in blind. Depending on how many men they have, there is probably a rotation around the compound, and definitely more inside. Fish, I want you up in the trees, getting as close as you can. Camp out up there, stay invisible, and watch the guards and patterns. If they're isolated, take them out. I want as much of the outside taken care of before we storm the castle."

"Yes, sir!" Fish snapped, fixing his hand and letting the sniper rifle rest upon his shoulder, barrel pointed up.

"And Fish, please give Chuckles one of your hats so his head doesn't become a moving target," Steve said, poking at Chuckles' red hair good-naturedly, but it was also very true. In a forest of dark greens and blacks even during the day, his red hair would stand out from miles away. That, of course, if the enemies were paying attention. Fish dug out an extra hat and tossed it to Chuckles who put it on backward without paying attention to the words on the front. Everyone else, however, noticed the bright pink "I'm not short, I'm vertically challenged" lettering. Steve covered up his laugh with a cough and Wheels and Indiana were having a rough time being composed at all.

"Chuckles and Wheels, you're with me. We're going to storm the front as soon as Fish clears it, and we're first defense. We don't know who or what is going down inside, but all we're doing is rescuing the hostages. We don't care about anything else. Got it?"

"Got it," the two men answered simultaneously.

"Indy, you have a few jobs. First, you're going to create the perimeter, take out any guards that Fish misses-not that he misses," Steve added on with a small smile when Fish gives him a nasty look. "Take the perimeter, look for a back entrance to the compound. If you find one, you and Sticks take that one. If there isn't one, come in through the entrance we did and follow up behind. Make sure to call out so there's no friendly fire, _Ty_." Steve grinned, glancing over at Wheels. His dark skin turned bright red and he punched Steve in the arm for bringing up the memory. Everyone took a moment to laugh at the memory, letting it slowly die off to focus back on the mission.

"Finally, I need two escape plans. A regular one and a backup in case the first one doesn't work. And as much as I hate to say this, the second plan you have free reigns. Take whatever supplies, make it as crazy as you can, I don't care. We just need to get the hostage out by any means possible." The smile that lit up on Indiana's face was devious and even downright scary. He had already thought of a few options, and the approval to put them in action was just what he needed.

"Any questions?" Steve was answered with 'no, sir' and nodded. "Good. Now, who's turn is it for the pep talk?" Heads turned around and looked at each other until they all slowly landed on Sticks.

"This oughta be good," Chuckles mumbled softly and Steve grinned at the comment. The fiery spunk of the man's hair and mouth reminded him of a certain Jersey detective with the same spunk. If they all got out of there alive, Steve thought Danny should meet Chuckles. Steve had no doubt that they would get along really well. The thought of his partner and his team back home made the smile slip off his face, but he could worry about going home to them later.

All eyes turned to Sticks, who made silent eye contact with each of them. He continued to stay silent as he bit down on his toothpick. In nearly slow motion, Sticks pulled out the soggy toothpick, broke it in half and threw it back in the jeep. He pulled a fresh one out of his back pocket and stuck it in his mouth, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Don't die." The two simple words rumbled with his deep voice, and the men nodded. Short and sweet, and ever so true.

"Alright, you heard the man. Let's move out." Steve was chorused by 'oo-rahs' and they broke out. The jeeps were parked behind some trees with Williem for a mixture of cover and for a quick escape. The SEALs jogged into the forest, keeping in between the trees and low to the ground for cover, barely making a sound. Within a couple of miles and a little over ten minutes later they reached the outskirts of the camp and instantly spotting the guards making rounds.

Like a machine, the SEALs dropped to their stomachs to hide behind the bushes to watch the men. Steve lt his hand up enough for his team to see the hand signals. There were standard military hand signs, but Steve had made up specific ones with his team with names or movements. In seconds, Fish and Indiana jumped up from their spots and moved in opposite directions. Indiana moved around the perimeter, dodging in and out behind trees, watching for guards. He counted them off as he passed, and successfully located a back entrance for them to sneak through. He made a full circle and rolled back to his spot with the crew, whispering his findings.

"There's a deadbolt door in the back, but Sticks can get through that no problem. No windows, one chimney with smoke coming out. Ten tangos total, three front three back, two on each side. Unknown number down below. No rotating, so we need some sort of distraction to get them to move."

By the time Indiana finished explaining, Fish had picked the best climbing tree and got himself as high up as he could go, setting up his shot. His branch was strong enough for him and his gun to lay down on, with enough leaves for hiding but not too much to affect his visibility. Any stray leaves that got in his sight were cut away with his knife and thrown down to Wheels. Wheels took the leaves and shoved them in his backpack as not to leave any evidence that they were there. Fish set up his rifle and checked for wind and length, making the adjustments and scoping out the territory. When he finished, he leaned down so Indiana could see his mouth and started whispering his plan. There was no way for them to hear Fish, but Indiana's lip-reading ability came in handy here.

"Fish can take the front three quick and easy, but then it gets difficult. If Chuckles makes a distraction on the left, he'll draw out the tangos on the left side and the back so he can take them out. That just leaves the right side. The right side is visible, but they are hanging too close to the back. Drawing the left and back will give Fish open shots for the right," Indiana whispered after he finished communicating. Steve took this all into consideration and gave it a go-ahead. It wasn't like they had better options. A smile spread across Chuckles' face, trading his rifle with his handgun for better movement. He sprinted off to the left side, ducking low in the bushes and stopping when the guards looked in his direction. Steve held up the wait signal as Chuckles ran to get the distraction in motion. Fish kept his scope on the first set of guards and Chuckles got in the spot he wanted. Making eye contact with Steve, he nodded once, checking his gun automatically. If luck was on his side, he wouldn't need to use it.

With everyone prepared, Steve dropped his hand, signaling to go time. In three seconds, three silent pops come from Fish's gun all aimed at the three tangos in the front of the buildings. The bodies hit the ground quietly, with none of the other guards spooked. With the sharp corners of the walls, the unsuspecting guards didn't see a thing. The second after the tangos dropped, Sticks and Wheels sprinted out across the grass. With their guns and anything not necessary in the bush with Steve, they ran out and grabbed the bodies. Wheels grabbed one bridal style while Sticks lifted the other two over his shoulders. They couldn't leave the bodies out in the open because they couldn't risk being discovered any more than Chuckles was already going to do.

As soon as Sticks and Wheels were back and hid the bodies in the brush, a sharp whistle caught both the SEALs' and the tangos' attention. The two tangos on the left waved over the ones in the back end of the building for support and jogged over to the tree line. Out and around the trees a flash of red popped out, taunting the guards. Chuckles had taken off his hat and made it visible for a few seconds, before falling back behind a tree for cover. The next time the guards saw the red they opened fire, catching the rest of the forces' attention. The guards on the right side looked at each other before running over to help out.

"Sonuva-" Steve started to curse but Wheels finished it for him.

"He's crazier than I am," Indiana whispered, which was something he wouldn't normally say. Up in the tree, Fish had all his targets in one place. Foolish people would think that it was easier that way, not having to move around to find the next target. But realistically it was even harder. Harder in the fact that once they noticed their buddies dropping dead, the element of surprise was lost. Fish had been expecting to take out the three, then five, then the remaining two. Not seven at a time. In all of this chaos, Fish cursed Chuckles for being stupid enough to run out and make _himself_ the distraction. He was supposed to find a distraction, not be one.

"If you die doing this I'm going to brick you back just so I can kill you for being so stupid," Fish swore, squeezing the trigger each time he saw a new head. One by one the rest of the guards were all taken out by Fish. Once all of the bodies hit the floor, Steve, Wheels, Sticks, and Indy ran out and hid the bodies in the brush. Fish held his breath as he turned the scope to the treeline, anxiously waiting for Chuckles to peek out and wave that he was okay. A minute passed before Fish saw the red hair, and he checked over the rest of the man. He was alright. Fish packed up his rifle and slid back down the tree, joining Chuckles as they laid on the ground with the rest of the SEALs.

"Indy, what's our status?"

"Golden, Smooth Dog. No windows, solid steel doors, thick concrete walls. I doubt they would be able to hear us, even with a couple of grenades on top of that firefight. We're good."

"Good." Steve rolled to his knees to look at his men. They stared back at him expectantly, awaiting the orders. Steve couldn't hold back a proud smile. These men had no idea what they were about to get into but they were willing to do anything that is needed. "This is it. Move-in, move fast, get the hostages out. No issues, alright? Indy, make sure there's a solid escape plan, and that backup if we need it. Fish, I want you to stay out here and keep watch. If anyone shows up, take them out. We don't have communication down there, so I need you to keep it as open as you can up here. Everyone good?" With final nods from his whole team, Steve gave them the go-ahead.

"Let's roll."

Fish shook his head as he climbed up into the tree. He didn't even have to go back down for the impromptu meeting, all he was doing was sitting in a tree. Fish picked a branch with a little more cover and lower to the ground in case of a quick escape. He watched as Sticks and Indiana got up first, sprinting to the front of the compound. Indiana held up the hold sign to Sticks and they pressed their backs against the concrete wall.

"Gimme a second," Indiana whispered, and moved to the blank wall beside the front door. He counted out the distance he wanted under his breath as Sticks watched curiously. Once Indiana reached the right spot, he pulled a small box out of the back of his vest. Next came out wires and what looked like molding clay, and using those he attached them to the concrete wall. He repeated the pattern a few more times until there was an arch big enough for a man to walk through. Looking over his work, he rubbed shaking hands down the sides of his pants to get the sweat off, before grabbing his gun and rejoining Sticks beside the door.

"What?" Indiana was ready to go, but Sticks continued to stare at him, the toothpick motionless in the man's mouth.

"You were carrying _bombs_ with you this entire time?"

"Just a couple sticks of C4, nothing huge."

"Nothing huge, the man says," Sticks sarcastically mumbled, knowing that Indiana could fully hear him. A smile broke out on Indiana's face, and the only sound was the click of the safety being turned off. Sticks barely let himself smile, the craziness of it all. Only a man with a death wish would carry around bombs with him like one would carry a wallet. However crazy it was, Indiana was the only person they trusted to be that crazy. It was just his style. Sticks and Indiana ran around to the back, placing themselves on either side of the back entrance. The steel door was heavy and thick, but nothing stayed in Stick's way for long. With one powerful kick, the metal handle crushed inward and Indiana dropped low to push the door in. Ducking down to keep his head from hitting the door frame Sticks entered the compound with Indiana hot on his heels. They were in.

As soon as Sticks and Indiana disappeared around the corner, Steve led Chuckles and Wheels to the front. They didn't have someone the size and sheer strength of Sticks to open it for them, but they had their own tricks. Steve pulled one of his beloved grenades that Danny would always complain about and hung it on the door handle, pulling the pin and letting it pop the door open. They swarmed inside, immediately catching the guards inside by surprise. There was no time for resistance, the guards hit the ground before they could even draw their guns.

"Cameras," Wheels said as he took out the two cameras that he saw.

"There goes the surprise," Chuckles sighed, and Wheels nodded grimly. Steve shrugged it off and adjusted the grip on his gun.

"Just means we gotta move fast. Let's go." Now that their location was known, Steve and his buddies were met with a lot more resistance. Once they cleared the first hallway, they open the door to the next room and were met with a hail of bullets. Steve fired back with one hand as pulled on Chuckles' collar with the other, saving him from a line of bullets where he just stood. The three SEALs waited in their cover patiently waiting for the gunfire to stop. The second they heard the enemies' guns click empty they made their move. Throwing in a flashbang first took out the sight of the tangos, making it easy for the SEALs to walk in and take them all down. Room by room they cleared the first floor until they met with Indiana and Sticks at the top of the stairs leading to the bottom floor.

"All good?" Steve asked his team breathlessly, sweat dripping down his face. Everyone nodded and he swung his gun around to the stairs, calming shooting the men that rushed up at them. In a single file moving like a well-oiled machine they got down to the basement, where they found bars lining the walls. They were in the right place. With the new adrenaline, they took out the rest of the guards in the compound and came face to face with the missing Naval officers.

The five missing officers sat side by side bound to chairs inside a large jail cell. Wheels searched the guards' bodies and pulled out a set of keys that would unlock the door. The SEALs rushed in and pulled out their knives to cut the ropes while checking over the prisoners. It wasn't a pretty sight. There were obvious signs of torture and exhaustion. There was no water and no food, and the room stunk of feces and vomit. These officers weren't made to hold up to torture like the SEALs were, but something on their faces told Steve that they didn't give anything up.

"Rollins," Steve said softly as he kneeled in front of Catherine, cutting the ropes off her wrist. He was careful, noting that the skin around her wrist and ankles were raw and bleeding, and the rest of her wasn't much better. Blood ran down the side of her face from a cut hidden in her hair and signs of a swollen eye that went down. A red-stained shirt wrapped around her thigh caught Steve's eye and he frowned. Catherine watched him carefully and she shook her head.

"It's new, the infection hasn't had time to set in yet," she tried to say encouragingly, bringing a positive to all the negatives they had been forced to survive through.

"Somehow that doesn't make me happier," Steve growled and checked over the rest of her. "Did they…" Catherine shook her head, knowing exactly where the question was going.

"No. I'm fine. Steve. I'm fine." All the ropes were dropped and he gave her a hand to stand up, only to have her leg buckled underneath her as soon as she got to her feet. At first, Steve thought it was just exhaustion, but the hiss of pain that came from her said it was something different. Steve caught her just before she hit the ground and he frowned again.

"Maybe I forgot to mention the broken ankle…" she said sheepishly and Steve rolled his eyes.

"You're so stubborn."

"What? I've been tied to a chair for three days, it's not like I've been using it!" She argued back, bringing a few laughs from the rest of Steve's team.

"Got a feisty girlfriend there, Smooth Dog, remind me not to mess with her," Chuckles quipped, giving Catherine a wink when she caught his eye.

"Smart man Charlie, smart man."

The SEALs got the remaining officers untied and moveable, various injuries but nothing remotely life-threatening. As long as the rest of the plan went well, the trip back to the plane would be relatively uneventful. Steve was cautious as they made the trek back up the stairs to the first floor of the compound, the rest of his team and the missing officers behind him. It was rough getting into the compound, but now it was empty. It just all seemed easy, too easy. Something was bound to go wrong, and Steve didn't want to think of the consequences for it.

* * *

Outside the compound, Fish was keeping a careful watch on the compound with his buddies inside. He had heard faint bursts of gunfire, but it had stopped relatively quickly. That meant they were alright. Of course, it could mean that the tangos got the advantage and murdered his entire team, but he didn't want to think about that. Focusing on the positives got him through his job. On the outside, there wasn't much action, only an occasional bird that would swing by. Fish checked his watch. They had been inside for almost ten minutes, just a tad longer than they normally planned, and he started to worry. What if something went wrong? He wanted to go inside and get help, but McGarrett told him to stay in his spot, and he always followed orders. The following orders saved lived.

As Fish shifted on his tree branch - they weren't really the most comfortable thing - the rumbling sound of car engines caught his ear. He flipped his gun around so his back was facing the compound and he was looking at that path they rode in on. Through the scope of his sniper rifle, he saw three jeeps loaded with ugly bad guys, all armed to the teeth. In the jeep leading the pack was their guide, Williem.

"That traitorous sonuva-" Fish cursed under his breath, wishing there was a way he could warn Steve and the rest of them what was coming. If he had a louder gun he could at least hope that they heard the gunfire from the outside, but his rifle was silent like it was supposed to be. He checked his ammo and counted off the men in the jeeps in case he had to take them all out on his own. He had enough, just barely. He could afford to miss just two shots, any more than that and the rest of the team would be met with a deadly surprise. At least with his silent rifle, Fish could keep his cover intact, of course until they found out his position. Hopefully, Fish could take them all out before that happened.

Keeping an eye on the front jeep, he aimed for the traitor first. If Williem had been acting under duress and forced into showing the rest of the terrorist group where they were there would've been specific signs. He would've been restrained, or at least look scared or nervous. And he definitely would not be armed. But Williem sat in the passenger seat of the first jeep, AK-47 in his hand and a wicked smile on his face. Definitely not something a person would be forced to act like. With an exhale and a quick squeeze of the trigger, the bullet leaped from the gun and missed. The jeep they were riding in hit a ditch so the machine dipped and the bullet sailed pass Williem. Not what he wanted, but the alternative wasn't bad. The bullet hit the driver and the jeep swerved with Williem racing to try and get it under control. He barely managed to contain the vehicle. The bad news was that the rest of the group knew they were under attack. The good news was that they still didn't know where he was.

Fish was able to fire off a few more shots until the good news turned sour. A total of ten men in three jeeps, he was able to get five more before they worked out his location. He froze and covered his scope to avoid any glare from outside light, but they started firing up at the trees and Fish couldn't avoid the spray of bullets. He moved his gun and pressed his cheek into the back, keeping his body as close to the branch as possible. But the few leaves and camo paint didn't stop the random shooting. A bullet caught him in the shoulder and he bit his cheek to hold back a cry. As the fire burned his shoulder he gripped the branch even tighter, gritting his teeth. When silence followed he thought the worst was over until another round of gunfire ran over his tree and he felt two more burns through flesh, one close to the original wound and one right near his knee. His arm lost feeling and grip that was holding him to the tree, so he fell and hit the thud. Fish stayed silent as fire burned through his body, not wanting any more noise to alert them of his position. Luck was not on his side as he heard the crunch of footsteps of grass get closer and closer to his location. With his good arm, he raised his handgun and aimed into the thick green forest, not out of the count yet. If he was going down, he'd go down fighting.

* * *

Inside the rest of the former SEAL team made a hiding place in one of the now-empty rooms, restocking and readjusting positions. The last stretch was going to get out of the compound and to the jeeps in one shot. It was a long shot, but Steve knew they could do it. It was the home stretch, they were so close. Just before he went to signal and move out, he felt the satellite phone in his pocket vibrate, catching him by surprise. Even though the phone worked off satellites and could pretty much go anywhere, he had been doubtful that it would work. But by either some curse or miracle, it did.

"McGarrett," Steve answered instantly, just like he always did. There was static for a moment but then he got bits of words from the other end.

"...Steve?...-there?"

"Yeah, I'm here Danny, can you read me?"

"Gotcha… got news… traitor…" Through the cutting in and out Steve was able to piece together most of the sentence, and his eyes widened.

"Who was it?"

"Intelligence ...-name Williem…" Steve held the phone away from his ear and rubbed his eyes with his other hand as he swore loudly and profusely.

"Language… Super SEAL…" Steve would have smiled at the jab, except for the fact that one of his team was all alone with no backup and a traitor on the loose.

"Thanks, Danno, gotta go," Steve said without a moment's hesitation and snapped the phone shut, slipping it back in his pocket.

"Alright, listen up! We gotta move and fast. Williem flipped sides, he's the one who leaked information for Hezbollah. Now he's out there and Fish is too, so we gotta move fast. Assume that we're already surrounded, so we need to be ready for anything. Indy, you got a plan for me?"

"Yes, sir. If it's clear, the backdoor should be good for decent cover, at least it would give us protection from anyone in the front. We have a plan b also, but that one's a little more exciting."

"Got it. Lead the way." Indiana helped his officer along as he leads the way out of the room, but before they could even begin to reach the backdoor, it was kicked open by some insurgents. Various curse words were called out and Indiana changed gears, moving in the opposite direction towards the front of the compound. The rest followed behind him with Sticks in the very back, his officer up in a fireman's carry and he laid cover to fire at the insurgents.

"Cover your ears!" Indiana screamed as he pulled a remote trigger out of his side pocket. With one press of a button, the C4 he had placed earlier exploded. Small showers of debris shot out at them but the SEALs broke through the wall without a moment's hesitation. It was dirty and definitely a plan b, but Indiana's it worked. As long as it got them away from the insurgents inside, they were alright.

Even out in the open air and most of the tangos behind them dead from the explosion, Steve was still uneasy. Something was off. He scanned the treeline and found the problem: Fish was nowhere to be found. He wouldn't move unless it was absolutely necessary for the survival of him or their team. Or Williem and the rest of the Hezbollah found him. A beat of silence passed as the SEALs continued to move forward until Jeep engines revved and broke out of the forest into the clearing of the compound.

"_Get back!"_ Steve over the roar of the machine gunners on top of the Jeeps who opened fire on the SEAL team. Bullets bit the ground at their feet as they scrambled backward, but they weren't fast enough. Exactly how they were trained to do, each of the SEALs turned their back towards the gunfire, shielding the hostages from the gunfire with their own bodies. Suicidal moves, but a necessary risk. Steve picked Catherine up entirely and shielded her as he continued to run to the best shelter. On the left side of the compound, a section of the wall stuck out a little farther than the others, providing just enough cover. More insurgents had swarmed the blown section of the wall, so no way were they getting back in that way. They were running out of options, and fast.

Steve felt bullets hit the back of his vest, knocking the air out of his lungs with every hit, and felt a fourth penetrate his shoulder. He felt another hit somewhere on his leg, but that didn't stop him from moving. There was another hit, but his body went numb and he couldn't tell any more. There were too many. He groaned but didn't stop, couldn't stop. Putting one foot in front of another, Steve pushed on as he watched almost off of his team make it behind the jutting wall, getting just enough cover. _Almost_. Just as Steve made it behind the wall, he saw Chuckles stumble and fall as the hail of bullets hit both his legs. He crashed to the ground, throwing the officer in one final effort to get the hostage to safety. Sticks and Indiana grabbed the fallen officer and dragged her behind cover. Chuckles grabbed at the grass to pull himself forward until he slumped forward with a bullet to the head. The force of the hit knocked the hat off Chuckles and he slumped to the ground, motionless. The insurgents locked on the only target in the field and held down on the triggers.

"_CHARLIE!" _Steve screamed as the lively read-head who always had a smile on his face jerked with every bullet that cut through his body. The barrage was endless, and no one could get out there without meeting a similar fate. When the insurgents were sure he was dead the hail of bullets stopped, and the faint sound of laughter could be heard. The very sound of them alone made Steve's blood boil. They killed Chuckles, who had just been killed trying to get innocent men and women out of harm's way, and they were _laughing_. On top of that, they didn't know where Fish was. Catherine knew that look in Steve's eye and grew concerned for him. His eyes hardened and turned icy cold, face set in a dangerous look. Nothing could stop him when Steve got this mad. Catherine had only seen it a few times herself, and Danny was the only other person who could help Steve calm down from that stage. But right now, she knew calming him down was not the answer. Catherine knew whatever happened next was not going to be pretty, but she prayed that he wasn't going to kill himself in the process. She caught sight of blood on his sleeve, but he moved before she could get a clear look.

"Sticks, give me a boost. Once they're distracted, Indy you need to run out and grab Charlie. Then we're going to make a run for it. Wheels, when the shooting starts, break off right and find Fish. Get him into a Jeep and come back for us. We're not leaving anyone behind." Wheels nodded solemnly, and Sticks crouched down so Steve was upon his shoulders. On Steve's go, Steve stood up on Stick's shoulders and peeked his head about the roof of the low compound. That was all he needed. However many Fish had taken out before he disappeared was enough, there were only five left. Nothing Steve couldn't handle. With pure rage and fury, matching with guilt pumping in his blood, Steve held up his rifle and shot back at the insurgents. His time as a sniper served him well, and he got four of them on the first shot. He ducked when the gunfire rained over his head, but it bought Indiana enough time to grab Chuckles and drag him back behind the cover. Immediately Steve jumped off Stick's shoulders and fell at Chuckles' side. With tears burning his eyes almost as fierce as the bullet wounds, Steve pressed two fingers to the redhead's neck, tears flowing freely when he couldn't find a pulse.

"Come on Charlie, don't do this to me," Steve whispered as he brought his hands up for CPR, only to find that his left shoulder was hanging at his side, practically useless. He shook his head and started CPR with one hand, tears rolling down his cheeks. A small voice in his head told him it was useless, Chuckles was gone. But he didn't want to listen to that voice. Steve wouldn't lose another man.

Pressure on his shoulder grew and a gentle hand pried him off Chuckles. He stared at Catherine as she pressed both her hands against his shoulder and kept her forehead against his. The bleeding hadn't slowed from when he was first to hit, and a man couldn't lose that much blood. Before he could even say a word, the roar of a Jeep engine caught all their attention and weapons were up for another round of battle. A collective sigh of relief and the drop of their weapons when it was just Wheels. With a heavy heart, Steve looked in the backseat of the Jeep to see the motionless Fish with blood sprayed out all over him.

"He's alive, but not for long. We gotta move," Wheel rushed, half of the hostages and SEALs already on board. It was a tight fit, the car was only made to seat five people, and they were way past the limit. But there was no time to get back for a second. Anyone unable to stand was squeezed together around Fish and Chuckles in the back and in the seats. Anyone able to stand stood on the frame of the jeep, holding tight to the metal cage above the top for balance. Steve had denied many offers of taking the seat, stating he was fine. As Steve held onto the rattling cage, his mind wandered to where it all went wrong. Each bump from the dirt shook a new wave of pain in him, and Steve felt a sudden warmth in his shoulder. He glanced down at the bloodstain and was met with the outburst of four more. Adrenaline had been his friend, but now on the escape, it was wearing thin. Either from the slickness of his own blood or the loss of muscle control, Steve felt his hand slip from the frame. He was weightless as he fell from the side of the jeep, and he couldn't focus. His eyes rolled back into his head and someone called his name right as the tugged him inside of the jeep. Steve didn't feel another thing.

When Steve opened his eyes again, all he saw was white. He blinked rapidly, the sharp smell of sterile white sheets and medical tools filling his nostrils. Even with his eyes open, they were blurry and out of focus, and it took a minute for blobs above him to actually take shape. He felt a hand on his arm and another held his hand. He tried to rub his eyes, but when he tried to move his arm it was stuck and pain shot up all the way through his shoulder.

"Hey buddy, it'd be better if you didn't move," said a familiar voice, and that blob formed into a person. Danny sat in a chair on his right side, a concerned smile on his face. Steve's face scrunched up as he took in Danny. The man's hair was all over the place and his face was drawn, large bags under his eyes.

"...ok?" Was all Steve could get out. His tongue felt like it was three times bigger than it should be and it was had to get words around it. Danny shook his head at his partner, unbelieving. The man was in the worst shape Danny had ever seen, and the first thing Steve did was ask if he was okay.

"I'm fine you big lug, I was worried." Danny ran a shaky hand through his hair, exhaling slightly. The last couple of days had been a complete nightmare. When they had finally found the mole, the idiot Williem who sold out his country for just a couple of thousand bucks, Danny needed to deliver the news to Steve. When Steve has picked up on the other end of the phone, Danny was just glad to hear he was alive. That had given Danny the reassurance he needed. Then Steve hung up, and the next thing Danny knew was Steve and his team were coming back to the States with the hostages, but not all of them had survived. Instantly Danny felt his heart drop into his stomach, but the person on the phone couldn't tell them who had died. Danny prayed that it wasn't true, but he couldn't get rid of the pit in his stomach saying it was Steve who wouldn't be coming back.

Danny heard that the men and hostages were treated with medical attention so they could take off, and treated mid-air, but it was shocking as Danny watched them roll in. The most critical first, Danny saw a short redhead on a gurney, eyes shut and more blood than anything else. He watched them go in the room, and come out a few minutes later. He was gone. The man behind the redhead was a native Hawaiian, but he was alive. Danny overhead about the three bullet holes in non-vital places was painful, but the doctors were optimistic about his survival. Next came Steve. Danny knew there had been fighting and there was a casualty, but Steve sure looked closer to the latter. There was more blood than the skin at first glance, and Danny felt the bile rise up in the back of his throat. This wasn't natural for Steve. It was _never _natural. Danny barely got more than a glance before Steve was whisked away, rolled into a room so the doctors could save his life.

Now seeing Steve, groggy and confused, but _alive_, made it all worth it. Danny kept his grip on Steve's arm just tight enough so that he knew he was there, but not so it hurt him. Danny could've sworn that his hair was three shades of grey darker from the stress, but when he heard Steve chuckle, it didn't matter. When Steve had left, he walked out of Five-0 with a smile on his face and laughter ringing through the halls. Danny had been worried that he would never hear that sound again. But as soon as Steve laughed, sitting in a hospital bed, Danny knew he was back. It would take time to recover, but he was back.

"And Steve, there's someone else to see you," Danny said as someone knocked on the door of Steve's room. Catherine was pushed into the room in a wheelchair, a young nurse helping her along. Catherine had gotten fixed up right after she had walked in behind Steve. The cut on her forehead had been stitched up, the bullet was pulled out of her thigh and her ankle was in a walking boot to help keep it set. It was quite a setup, but Catherine had all but demanded to see Steve as soon as she was able too.

"Hey, Cath…" Steve said with a loopy smile, rolling his head to the side to look at her better as the nurse rolled Catherine right up next to his bed.

"How are you feeling, Steve?" Catherine smiled, taking Danny's place and grabbing Steve's hand.

"I'm alright. Better knowing you're okay," he said with a sheepish smile that never failed to bring a laugh out of her. Danny smiled at the happy scene before him, thinking all was better. But unknowing to Danny, Catherine didn't just come for social hour.

"Steve." The change in her tone caught Steve's attention and the smile fell off his face. Steve opened his mouth to ask the question, but Catherine already knew. She didn't want to tell him so bluntly, so early, but that was the only way to do it. There were no runarounds with Steve, just straight and to the point. That didn't make it any easier.

"Charlie didn't make it." Danny watched the complete shift in emotions on Steve's face as he processed this. It went from rage to sadness to guilt all in a matter of seconds. Catherine knew it too, and she squeezed his hand, telling him the rest.

"Steve, listen to me. Fish is alright. He made it. So is Sticks, and Wheels, and Indy, and everyone else. Everyone else is alright, you got all of us out."

"But not Charlie," Steve whispered, voice uncharacteristically breaking when he said the other man's name. Steve had only ever lost a few men, Freddy being one of them. Now Charlie was added onto the list.

"No," Catherine said, squeezing Steve's hand gently as she affirmed his statement. There was no denying it. Only bring what comfort she could. "Not Charlie."

For a moment it looked like Steve had a handle on things, just processing. Danny didn't know who Charlie was, but he guessed that it was the red-head that had been rolled in first. He was the only one who had died. Danny closed his eyes and ran his hand over his mouth, understanding the feeling of loss. When Danny opened his eyes again, Steve sat in his bed with his hand over his mouth, eyes squeezed shut and shoulders shaking. Loud intakes of breath filled the silence as Steve tried to unsuccessfully choke down the sobs. Danny sprinted up from his seat and Catherine leaned as far as she could from her wheelchair. Catherine gripped Steve's free hand so he could squeeze hers, while Danny kept one hand cupped around the back of Steve's neck, grounding him. Neither of them said anything as Steve continued to sob, turning into soft cries. It wasn't like Steve. Danny wasn't used to seeing him like this. Steve was the strongest out of them all, but all men having a breaking point.

"Hey, hey, Steve. Look at me," Catherine commanded when it got quiet again, and red-rimmed eyes finally looked up and met hers.

"I know it hurts. But you brought him back home. He's home because of you. You brought us all home, sailor."


	4. Danny

**Whew, I'm back. That last chapter was a doozy, and this one is pretty emotional too. I am desperately trying to finish this whole story before November so I can focus on NaNoWriMo, but we'll see how it goes. Anyway, here's the next chapter, probably one of my favorites. Warning: one mild swear word. **

**REVIEWS:**

**Nycngl: No problem! Here's another!**

**Alright, guys, I have one more chapter to edit (a _really_ long one) then one more whole chapter I need to write and edit. I will try to get these posted as soon as possible. Enjoy!**

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**Danny**

_**By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North**_

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For the first time since he arrived on the islands, Danny started to believe he didn't completely hate nature. For the last few weeks, Steve had been unrelenting, telling him about this trail he had hiked once, the same trail just happens to be nearby Danny's house. Danny was forced to listen to Steve talk about it for weeks without end until Danny finally promised he would try it just so Steve would shut up. Besides, it was a trail and a bunch of trees. It couldn't be all that bad, right? So the next morning, Danny made sure Grace had been dropped off at school and was good before he texted Steve. He said that he would take one of the shorter paths on the trail so he would come into the office a little late. Danny knew that the slightly egotistical remark and the little smiley face emoji was all Steve gloating. Let him, Danny thought. He knew Hawaii was beautiful, there was no denying it. Maybe this would let him enjoy it a little more. He could practically see the cocky grin on Steve's face waiting for him back at the Five-0 office.

As much as he hated to admit it, Hawaii was breathtaking. Danny knew that each little part of the islands had their own specific beauty, but it was stunning. His morning walk through a trail no more than five minutes from his house showed some of that neighborhood beauty, something he couldn't get back in the stacked buildings of New Jersey. Danny had a few favorite spots on the island that drew him in, but he never took the time to appreciate the rest of the islands. There was never any time. Danny was always running after Steve, trying not to get shot at or blown up, or keeping those same things from happening to Steve. Days like that made him wonder why he actually got up in the morning. He didn't enjoy being shot at on a daily basis, but he loved the work. He loved his team, working with Five-0 and the HPD. Chin and Kono made the room light up wherever they went, always bringing that aloha spirit. And Steve, even being an idiot with no self-preservation, was Danny's best friend. He couldn't ask for anything else. Yes, there was more danger than he cared, but it was also his line of work. And he loved it.

Looking up at the trees around him, he pulled out his phone and took a couple of pictures, knowing they would make Grace happy. Next time he got a chance, he wanted to get Grace out on this trial. It was well shaded, making it just cool enough for it not to be sweltering in the Hawaiian heat, but still nice enough for shorts and a t-shirt. If Steve saw Danny now he would probably laugh. To Steve's surprise, Danny did own t-shirts and shorts, he just saved them for off days or things like this. The day Danny Williams wore a t-shirt and shorts to the office would be the day the world ended. It just wasn't going to happen. He wanted to be more professional, and sue him if he wanted to keep just that little bit of Jersey-style with him.

The trail was looped, so the beginning also marked the end. When Danny could see the end of the trail in the distance, he decided to have a little fun. Stopping at the nearest tree, he turned until a small stream was behind him and pulled out his phone. He wasn't the greatest with technology, but he'd slowly started to figure it out. Flipping the camera around so he was in selfie mode, Danny made the grumpiest and snapped the picture. Typing a quick caption underneath, Danny sent the picture to Steve and smiled as he shoved his phone back into his back. Steve would enjoy that.

Leaning back in his office chair, Steve pulled out his phone when he heard the vibrations. He put down the file he was holding and slide open the text from Danny, laughing aloud when he saw the caption and the picture.

"_Took the trail you suggested. I hate it. Nature is disgusting."_

The sarcasm was evident though emotionless text and Steve continued to chuckle as he typed in a response. Right as his finger hovered over the send button, something in his gut twisted and he immediately felt uneasy. It didn't make sense, because nothing bad was happening. Chin and Kono were with him, and Danny was on his way back to his house. Nothing was wrong. But no matter how much logic Steve threw at the uneasy feeling it came back stronger. Shaking his head, Steve hit the call button. Maybe if he heard Danny's voice, saying he was ok would settle his stomach.

Steve's foot pounded out a beat on the wooden floor and the phone rang once, twice, three times. After the fourth ring, Danny picked up, a laugh in his voice.

_"You just missed me too much, didn't you?"_ His voice came thin over the speakers, but Steve was still tense. He listened for any background noise that could mean his partner was in trouble, but there was nothing. There was nothing to be worried about. So why was his gut giving him warning signs?

_"Steve? Are you there?"_ Danny's voice jolted him back to reality, realizing he still had not said anything.

"Sorry, blanked out for a second. I saw the picture, I can tell you're having a fun time. Get bitten by any snakes yet?"

_"Don't even joke about that Steven, or I'll bring one back so it can bite you,"_ Danny laughed on the other side of the phone.

"You do that Danno, I bet you couldn't even get in three feet of a snake," Steve had no problem poking good-naturally at the man. What good was a friend if you couldn't tease and joke at them? Knowing the joking could go on for a while, Steve leaned back into his chair and propped his feet up on his desk, getting comfortable.

_"Just for that I'm going to find one now, and I'm going to take a picture of it. Maybe I'll even…-"_ Before Danny could finish the rest of his sentence, Steve could hear gunshots ring out over the line. Just as he had gotten comfortable, Steve shot out of his seat and stood frozen in the middle of his office. Steve heard a thud and Danny swore.

"Danny-!" Steve was helpless as he could only listen to the gunfire over the phone. He slammed his glass door open and sprinted to the other offices. He banged on the glass of each office grabbing Kono and Chin's attention before running back to the main computer table. Startled by the sudden action they broke out of their offices, meeting Steve at the table in the main part of the office. Steve was frozen, phone pressed up against his ear staring down in shock.

"Trace Danny's phone, I've got shots fired," Steve whispered to Chin as he dropped his phone on the computer table. The phone was turned speaker mode and Danny's heavy breathing was heard in the periods of silence when the guns weren't firing. Chin's fingers flew over the table at a dizzying speed and Steve tapped his fingers impatiently as he could only wait for the trace to get up and running.

"Danny, Danny, are you okay?" Steve shouted out as the map coordinates got closer and closer to a locked location.

_"I'm fine, Steve. Someone was in the deeper part of the forest and we made eye contact. I guess they didn't like that because they pulled a gun. I ducked I saw someone at the end of the trail, we made eye contact. Then I saw a gun and ducked, but they started running towards me and-argh…"_ Danny's sentence was cut off with more gunfire and a grunt from Danny, only adding to Steve's growing concern. The gunfire stopped and Steve could hear harsh wet coughing. That could only mean one thing.

"Danny!" Just as Chin locked onto the coordinates of Danny's phone, Steve couldn't hold back another worried call. Where had this all gone wrong?

"I got him, he's about a quarter-mile from the exit, right on the path," Chin said. Steve turned to the gun cabinet Five-0 kept near the back wall before a new voice stopped him in his tracks. Low and distorted, the voice filled the phone speaker and shocking the team.

_"It is time for Daniel Williams to pay for his wrongs. He is the first, then I'm coming for the rest of the Williams family. No one will be spared, and anyone in my way will join them. I will not stop until the Williams' family blood is spilled on the ground with the blood of the innocent he has murdered. Let it be remembered when he is gone that the mighty Steve McGarrett will be helpless to stop it. The blood spilled will be on his hands."_ One-click and the line went dead, leaving the team in shocked silence. The silence only lasted for so long until Steve hit the table with his palm and swore loudly and he felt nauseous. This wasn't supposed to happen. They didn't know what the voice was talking about, but Steve couldn't imagine Danny doing anything so bad that it would warrant this. All Danny did was take a walk in a park. Steve stopped dead as he made a realization. A park Steve had recommended. And now this person said that the blood was on his hands? He didn't even know who was talking, but it was obvious they knew who he twists in his gut from before came back, but this time for different reasons. The logical side tried to reason with him, but Steve couldn't hear it. Steve couldn't stop thinking that this was his fault.

Maybe if Steve hadn't pushed Danny so hard to go on the trail, Danny would be at the office, safe and sound. Not stuck in a forest with some psycho. But Steve was going to make it right. This person knew Steve, and now they were going after Danny for it. Steve tried to think of any reason someone would be enacting their revenge now, but no names came to mind. But no matter how Steve tried to reason with himself, he knew it was his fault. If Danny blamed him, so be it. But he was not going to be the reason that Danny wouldn't be coming home. Steve had lost too many good men on his watch, Danny was not going to be added to that list.

"Listen up," Steve called out, in full SEAL mode. Chin and Kono were listening intently, waiting to move. "We need to make sure that Danny's family is safe. Kono, pick Gracie up from school and bring her to a safe house. I'll get HPD to get set up in there. Chin, I need you to get Rachel and Stan and bring them there too. HPD will run patrols, but I want you to stay with them. If whoever's after Danny comes looking I want to take them down."

"And Danny?" Chin and Kono knew their orders and they wouldn't do anything to blatantly disobey them, but they were still missing one member. Steve rolled his shoulders and checked that his gun was loaded, the already memorized coordinates on the computer taunting him.

"I'm gonna get him back."

To put it mildly, Steve was pissed. And that was mild. Kono and Chin had left the same time as him, speeding off in their respective cars to pick up the rest of the Williams' family and get them to the safe houses. By the time Steve pulled up to Danny's house, he got a call from Kono saying they got everyone to the safe house without a problem.

"Do you need backup, boss?" Chin had asked, Kono, affirming over the speakerphone.

"No, I need you guys to stay there. Danny would want his family protected above all, so I need you guys to keep it that way. If whoever's after them shows up, don't hesitate. I don't want to risk Grace's or anyone's lives." Steve had ended the phone call as he walked up to Danny's front door, trading the phone for his handgun. Steve didn't expect to find the attacker at Danny's house considering all the damage had been done at the trail, but that didn't mean he hadn't been by the house. He couldn't waste much time, but part of him hoped this was all an act and Danny was just sitting at home, waiting for him to run in and surprise Steve. Steve would probably punch Danny if that happened, but at least he would be alright.

Steve instantly noticed the broken door handle and that only confirmed his fears. The attacker had either been here first, or they were still inside. Steve put his ear to the door to listen for any noises inside, only responding with silence. He pushed in the door and ran in with his gun training over the walls and layout he was all too familiar with. Inside almost every piece of furniture - which if Steve had, to be honest, wasn't that much in the first place - had been turned over and slashed through what must've been a knife. Books had been torn off the shelves, Danny's TV screen cracked, holes in the drywall, broken glass littering the floor. Steve carefully stepped over the broken pieces of wood and bent down to pick up an upside-down picture frame. Underneath the shattered glass was a picture of Danny and Grace at a local park, smiles written all over their faces. Danny had talked about this picture, it was one of his favorites. Steve set the picture frame back up and finished clearing the rest of the house, concluding the attacker was not inside, he knew this was too much of a coincidence. On the off chance that a robber decided to hit this specific house the same day Danny got attacked in the forest was a stretch, but it was possible. But as soon as Steve had seen most of Danny's valuables still lying on counters, he knew it was the attacker. Wasting no more time, Steve sprinted out of the house and slammed down the gas on his truck, racing to the trail.

trail's end, he got a call from Kono saying they had got everyone without a problem and were keeping watch at the safe house. Steve sighed internally, thankful there was one less thing to worry about. He had thrown on his bulletproof vest over the dark green t-shirt he had picked out, dark cargo pants holding the extra ammunition and weapons. He had thrown on some dark camo paint he always had in his truck to blend in with the trees more, hoping to use stealth as his advantage and get a jump on the attacker. With a suppressed rifle hanging by the strap and his handgun in his holster, Steve took off for Danny.

At the trailhead, Steve threw on his bulletproof vest of the dark green t-shirt he had picked out, cargo pants holding extra ammunition and weapons. He didn't have time to use any other tricks for keeping stealth, so he hoped that the dark color clothing would be enough. He wasn't sure that Danny's attacker would still be in the forest after threatening Danny's family, but he had no doubt that he would be back soon to finish Danny off. Especially once they found out that Grace and Rachel had been put into hiding. Steve didn't even want to think about the option that the attacker had already killed Danny, Steve wouldn't accept that. Steve would find his partner first, then they could deal with the man who dare threaten his partner. All set with his handgun in the holster, rifle hanging on a strap over his shoulder, he had to do one last thing.

"Hey Duke," Steve heard the police sergeant's voice as it came over the line, thick with concern. "Yeah, I'm looking for him now. Can you send CSI to Danny's place, and to the start of Makapu'u Trail? Yeah, the one near his house. Thanks." The phone call was short and concise, only using up as much time as he needed to get all the information. The longer he took on the small things, the bigger chance Danny could be in serious trouble. He shoved his phone back in his pocket, grabbed his gun and took off onto the trail.

As soon as he stepped down on the gravel walkway, Steve's SEAL training kicked in. Eyes sharp and looking around for any threats, his gun was up and leveled at average height for any spontaneous threats and his steps were silent, even in combat boots on gravel. He was in the zone. This was what he was truly good at. Sure, Steve could chase down criminals all day and stop crimes here and there, but this is what he lived for. Knowing it was his partner in danger, his senses were heightened just a bit more, the urgency all that much more grave. He had lost men in battle before, but this wasn't in a battle, He wasn't out in the desert of Afghanistan tracking down some terrorists when an ambush took out his buddies. This was home. Hawaii wasn't perfectly safe, but it was Steve's job to make sure that his people weren't caught in the crosshairs. If he couldn't keep his men save out in combat, how could he keep his team, his partner safe at home? Was he losing his touch?

Steve tried to keep the guilt off his mind as he kept his eyes peeled for any sort of clue of where Danny was taken. Steve wasn't about to let Danny die because some maniac decided they wanted revenge. Not his partner. Not today. Dodging in between trees, Steve had almost given up that there were any clues until a beam of light reflected off a shiny surface directly into Steve's eyes.

Steve ran back to the edge of the trail, finding a phone with a broken screen sitting in the grass just off the edge of the path. He tapped the screen and a picture of Grace stared back at him. Steve let the phone fall to his side and ran a hand over his eyes and through his hair, swearing again. This wasn't happening. Shaking his head and the emotions off, he slid Danny's phone into his pocket next to his own and continued in the direction he found the phone. At least he was in the right place. But now he had roughly three miles of trails and forest to check for Danny, and the day was already halfway over.

Keeping the gun up, Steve dropped to one knee and searched the grass near the phone for anything else. A few feet away, a bright splash of color stood out from the green grass. Small droplets of red painted the tips of the grass, and Steve's gut wrenched. His blood boiled, but he just barely held back the bile that rose up in his throat. Danny was hurt. He swore again, long and colorful. Most days he was pretty good, his mouth had gotten cleaner since joining Five-0. But he was a sailor after all. The point was, Danny wasn't. Steve had always been cautious about letting Danny join him along in dangerous plans. Steve knew the risks, he had been in a million different situations like it before. Danny hadn't. Danny had a kid to go home too. Steve didn't. He had made his peace with death a long time ago. Danny didn't deserve the consequences for Steve's mistakes.

Following the makeshift trail of blood-stained grass tips, Steve followed it deeper into the forest. About halfway through the stains got smaller and smaller, until they stopped completely. Steve guessed he was about half a mile into the forest. Spinning in a slow circle, Steve knew he was close to the right place. The nearest section of the trail was out of sight, and the thick forest trapped sound into the small area. Out of the way enough for people not to be hanging around, but just enough escape routes to make a quick escape. He had found the place, now he just needed to find his partner.

"Danny! Danny, you here?" No one was around and there weren't people behind him, so Steve took a chance and called out his partner's name. Not whispered but not yelled, just somewhere in the middle. He stepped over broken twigs and bentgrass, tale-tell signs that someone had been there recently. Just off to the side, half-buried in the dirt at a tree root was dull brown leather, blending in so well that Steve almost missed it. He dropped to one knee and brushed away the dirt, keeping his eye on the surrounders to make sure no one was sneaking upon him, he pulled out the familiar leather. Danny's wallet. Steve knew that was no accident Danny's wallet had ended up there. The phone, maybe. Blood trail? Possible. It would explain the sudden stop of blood if the attacker had figured out that it was leading them to where they were going. But the wallet? Danny was leaving him clues.

"Attaboy," Steve whispered, a small but proud smile spreading across his face. He continued to search, finding some broken grass and twigs leading him deeper inland, to a small dropoff into a ditch. The ditch was about five feet down and stretched for about half a football field altogether. Steve dropped down into the ditch, searching the ground for any more the trail

"Danny? Danny you there?" Steve called out, keeping his gun moving with his eyes for anything suspicious. He took a chance and moved down the right side of the ditch, his eyes catching on a piece of concrete sticking out of the opposite side of the ditch. He moved toward it, jogging closer when he realized it could very well be where Danny was. The piece of concrete turned into a culvert, a tunnel that normally carried a stream underneath roads and walkways. Steve was surprised to find the ground around him not wet, but that was when he realized his problem. The culvert had a solid concrete cover sitting exactly inside the circle pipe. Steve couldn't tell how thick it was, but there was no room for his fingers to grip. Steve's fingers ran over the concrete, almost afraid to call out and find the worst.

"Danny! Are you in here?" Steve's heart skipped a beat when he didn't hear an answer, and for a horrifying moment, Steve thought he was too late. Seconds later, Steve heard what he would later remember as the best sound in the world.

"...Steve?" Whispered and cracked in the middle, Steve almost laughed in relief when he could just barely hear Danny's voice through the concrete slab.

"Hey buddy, I'm gonna get you out of there, alright? Just hold on tight, man," Steve shouted so Danny could hear him through the concrete, while inside Steve was holding back from wanting to punch something. Maybe the concrete. Maybe himself. Preferably someone else. Someone else like the sicko who decided it was acceptable to put a person in a covered sewer drain under the ground. Especially said person having claustrophobia.

"Danno, I need you to talk to me, ok? Talk to me," Steve pleaded as his fingers searched the edge of the concrete lid, searching for any crevice to get a grip. The concrete was a perfect fit inside the culvert, so there was no space for his fingers to pull out from. But that didn't stop Steve from trying. His fingerless gloves gave him enough raw grip, but all it really did was rip up the tips of his fingers until they were raw and bloody. Blood streamed down his fingers, making the concrete slick and even harder to get a decent grip on. This wasn't working, and Danny was still not talking to him.

"Please Danny, say something." The silence was discouraging until the shaky voice from his partner on the other side gave him a little hope.

"It ...stinks in here." Steve stopped pulling at the now-red concrete to rest his forehead on his arm over the top of the culvert. A smile crossed his face and he shook his head. Out of everything that had happened, that was the first thing that Danny said. The first to crack a joke.

"I can imagine. How are you doing, buddy?" Steve looked around for something that could help leverage the concrete out with. But this was at least a two-man job. Danny was going to need to help out if they wanted to do this.

"Um… Okay. I-I need to get out of here. Soon, Steve. Not doing great with-with space. It's a little tight and I can't really ...really breathe" Steve could hear the slight panic in Danny's voice and it made Steve's chest tighten in concern, and his vision goes red with hatred for whoever put him in there. Steve heard Danny's uneven breaths come in small gasps, just barely heard. Steve needed to get him out of there, and fast. The culvert was only about two feet wide, just barely enough room to fit a person in there, uncomfortably. He didn't want to knock it inward-while that was probably easier, he didn't know how thick it was and he didn't want to knock it on top of Danny. Steve spotted a thick tree branch laying on the ground a few feet away from him, a miracle in disguise. He grabbed at it, just long enough to be used as a lever to pull the concrete out. It would only work if Danny could push the concrete from the inside to create a gap for the stick to wedge in to.

"Danny, come on partner, I need your help, can you do that? I need you to push on the lid from the inside. There's nothing for me to grip out here, I need you to push from the inside." He was met with silence until there was a grunt from Danny shifting around inside the coffin. Slowly, wincing with every pained groan he heard from inside of the culvert, the concrete slab started to move, ever so slightly. But with each movement, Steve could hear the muffled grunts of pain from Danny inside. Steve had no idea what condition Danny or how hurt he was, but Steve knew if it came to it, he would trade places with his partner in a heartbeat. He understood it was rough for Danny to see him recklessly run after bad guys and put himself in harm's way, but it better that way. It was easier for Steve to put himself in the line of fire than worry about his partner and his team about getting hurt. He was used to it. Steve couldn't bare the thought of Danny getting hurt.

"There we go, almost there!" The slab kept moving, Steve shouting encouragements to Danny the entire time until there was a big enough gap for the stick to fit through. Steve slid the makeshift lever into the gap and pulled down, breaking the concrete free from the rest of the culvert. With a crack, the stick broke and the slab fell loose, Steve jumping backward just in time to keep it from crushing his foot. The slab hit the ground with a dull thud and settled in the dirt. It was about two inches thick and nearly 120 lbs. Steve grabbed his flashlight and shone it inside of the pipe, landing on the man inside. Danny was laying on his side, eyes blinking rapidly in the bright light, body sagging when he recognized Steve. Danny opened his mouth to say something, but the words never came out. His body shook and his face was pale with sweat, his arms tied behind his back. Steve's own body shook, not with fear but with rage.

"Come on, let's get you outta there, partner," Steve spoke softly. Getting him out was going to be an interesting process. He wasn't that far back, but his legs were near the beginning of the tunnel. Steve saw the tint of red blood, and he didn't want to accidentally hurt Danny anymore than he already was. At the same time, Steve knew that Danny was not doing well inside of the tight space, and he needed to get out by any means possible. So Steve got into the pipe as much as he could, one hand grabbing Danny's shoulders and the other snaking underneath Danny's knees. As soon as Steve put the slightest bit of pressure on Danny when he lifted up, Danny let out a small grunt of pain, and Steve winced. He now took notice of the blood staining Danny's thigh, the source of most of the pain. Steve carefully got Danny out of the tunnel and sat him on the ground, back pressed up against the dirt wall of the ditch. Steve could feel his partner trembling under his hand, and after taking a big breath of fresh air Danny leaned his head back against the dirt, sucking in the fresh air. Steve kept his hand on Danny's shoulder, providing constant support and did a once over the rest of his partner for injuries. His hands were tied behind his back, and thick bloodstain covered Danny's shorts and thigh.

"Danny, when did you get shot?" Of course, Steve knew the answer. He heard the shot and the grunt of pain from Danny over the phone, so that was a pretty good indicator. But Steve needed communication with Danny. If Danny shut down, it would be bad for both of them, so he needed to keep Danny talking.

"Uh… I don't know…" Danny mumbled, much to Steve's dismay. Steve flipped out his knife and cut through the rope holding Danny's hands behind his back. Carefully pulling the rope away, Steve noticed that Danny's left wrist was hanging unnaturally, almost definitely broken. It was not going to be easy. Danny moved his arms so they were at the front, fingers prickling at the sudden blood flow and he brought his broken wrist up against his chest. He could deal with the wrist later, but the most important thing was stopping the blood flow in Danny's leg. From what Steve could tell, there was no exit wound, so the bullet was still inside. But he couldn't do that right then either. All he could do was call in for help and keep the blood from spreading. With his phone pressed in between his ear and shoulder, Steve pulled out the extra shirt he had stuffed in his back pocket and ripped it while talking to the HPD operator at the same time.

"I need an ambulance at the start of the Makapu'u trail. Yeah, a gunshot wound to the thigh, no exit wound, and a broken wrist. Symptoms of shock and a panic attack, he's claustrophobic and was in ...a small space," Steve had to grit his teeth at the words "small space" to hold back from saying it was a sewer. Just the thought of it made his stomach turn over. When he finished the phone call he shoved his phone back in his pocket and knelt down in front of Danny. Danny kept his injured leg stretched flat out in front of him, and his eyes were dull and glazed over. Danny had a thousand-yard stare that normally only Steve had and was uncharacteristically silent. Danny being silent made Steve more nervous than anything else, and he tried to start a conversation, anything to get him talking.

"So I called HPD, they're sending people down to help us get out of here. Then they'll get you checked out, make sure you're alright, then I'll order us some pizza. How about that, huh? Maybe this time you'll eat some with pineapple, yeah?" Normally Danny would burst out on how pineapple pizza wasn't real pizza and a Jersey boy like him would never even consider the thought, but he was still silent.

"Danny," Steve asked more serious and the no response, snapping his fingers in front of Danny's face. Dulled eyes focused on his fingers and slowly Danny turned his head so he met Steve's eyes, who smiled slightly. "Hey buddy, I'm just going to tie this around your leg alright? I gotta get that bleeding under control." Steve held the shirt gently as he reached for Danny, who suddenly jumped into action.

"Don't touch me!" Danny growled, lashing out and taking Steve by surprise. In that surprise, Steve never even saw Danny's fist come around and knock him clean across the jaw. Steve fell back on his behind and stared at Danny, who was still flailing. Steve moved his jaw around, making sure everything was still in place and held his hands out in front of him. Danny was mumbling softly as he punched at the air, eyes unfocused.

"Don't touch me, don't put me in there, stop it, I said don't touch me…" Steve's face crumpled as he heard Danny say those words over and over again, the blond man almost on the edge of tears.

"Danny, Danny, it's just me. You gotta let me help you," Steve tried, making eye contact with Danny and grabbing his fists as the Jersey man swung at him again.

"Danno, it's me. It's Steve." At the sound of his nickname, Danny froze, looking around again until he found Steve. Slowly Steve let go of Danny's fists and he dropped them back to the ground, looking around in confusion.

"You with me partner?" Steve asked cautiously, never breaking eye contact and never moving too fast. He had only been with Danny a few times with his claustrophobia, but it had never gotten this bad. Whatever it was seemed to have passed, and Danny's eyes looked stronger and more in focus.

"Yeah… I think."

"That's good, good," Steve nodded, a small smile starting to grow. "Can I tie this around your leg? I need to stop the bleeding." It took a minute for him to process but Danny mutely nodded, watching intently as Steve carefully slid the shirt under Danny's leg and tied it tightly, a nearly unbreakable knot finishing it off.

"There, all better. Now, how about you say we get outta here and go get some of that pineapple pizza you wanted," Steve said, his second test. Slower than normal, but Danny looked up with a ghost of a smile on his face completely with an eye roll.

"If I agreed to eat fruit on pizza, I must be dying," Danny said, finally able to catch his breath. No sooner did he actually feel a little better, his chest seized up when he remembered the threat he had heard before he was locked inside. He looked up at Steve - who had stood and started to figure out the best way to get Danny out of the ditch - in horror.

"Where's Gracie? And Rachel? She's going to kill them, they have to go somewhere safe," Danny nearly shouted, his concern wrenched back up again not for himself, but his family.

"It's alright, they're safe. Kono and Chin have got them at a safe house, surrounded by HPD. They're not going to let anything happen to them," Steve said, making it over the ditch and back onto the normal ground, crouching with his back towards the trail. "Wait, _she_-?"

Before Steve could finish his statement, gunfire broke out in the forest towards them. A bullet caught Steve in the shoulder, the Achilles heel of bulletproof vests, and he was knocked off his feet back into the ditch.

"Steve!" Steve heard Danny call his name as he landed face-first onto the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs. He rolled over onto his back, pain radiating through every inch of his shoulder. Danny had watched the whole scene in slow motion and had tried to move, but his leg was not cooperating.

"Steve, you alright?" Danny shouted over the gunfire that flew above the top of the ditch as Steve pushed himself from a sitting position. He scrambled back to use the wall of the ditch as cover, dragging Danny over with him.

"I'm fine, just a scratch," Steve said, typical of a McGarrett, waving off the concerned face from Danny. He couldn't see what happened, but it just felt like a scratch. It was painful, but he could still move his arm. As long as he could shoot a gun, that's all that mattered. Steve handed Danny his handgun for protection while keeping his rifle close to his chest. Leaving Danny near the coffin, Steve kept low and ran across the ditch until he reached the end that raised back up onto the normal ground. He poked his head out over the top, spotting the enemy. A woman led a pack of four burly men, who all looked like bodyguards. They all had automatic weapons, and they were laying a constant fire. They didn't see Steve yet, but they were almost on Danny. They must've come back and heard them talking. They couldn't leave any evidence behind, so they came to clean up the mess.

With Danny's life on the line, Steve lined up his rifle, planning his shots like he used to and took a deep breath. On the exhale he pulled the trigger five times, each bullet taking down the enemies, the gunfire stopping as bodies hit the floor. He sprinted over and kicked the guns out of reach and making sure none of them were going to move again.

"Danny? Danny, you alright?" Steve felt like he was repeating himself too often, the same cycle of getting good news only for it to be shattered moments later with the gut-wrenching concern for his partner.

"I'm good, Steve." Danny stared back up at his partner from the bottom of the ditch, unused gun in his good hand. "I'm good." Steve sighed, and then he heard the sirens from the ambulance and HPD even from the heart of the woods. Moments later, an ambulance drove in and policemen swarmed, taking away the guns and moving bodies. Steve briefly recounted what happened to Duke, before following his partner as he was being loaded up in an ambulance.

"Who was she?" Steve asked from the corner of the ambulance, holding tightly to Danny's hand like they did when the building collapsed on top of them. One of the EMTs was in the back with them, getting an IV in Danny and pressing up against the bullet wound in Danny's leg. Danny told the story between grunts of pain when the pressure got too much, gripping Steve's hand like a lifeline.

"She's from Jersey, her name is Melanie. She's a former drug addict that I busted that we used as a CI a few times, but she started growing too attached to my case. Like, weirdly attached."

Before Danny continued the story, Steve interrupted. "Wait, Melanie. Melanie Goscov?" Now Danny looked confused.

"Yeah, she was a player in New Jersey for a long time." Steve instantly made the connection.

"I've dealt with Goscov before, she was around when I was running a mission Kazakhstan. Her boyfriend was in a drug ring and she got mixed up in it. We corner them but they stepped on a hidden IED and the boyfriend lost his legs. They still got away and we heard rumors of them going to the states, but they disappear so we never really knew."

"Well yeah, she went to Jersey. Really went nuts when NJPD and I raided a drug house and the occupants fired back. We ended up killing the boyfriend, and she had been holding that against us ever since. She kind of became a stalker, and thought we had some sort of 'connection'. It was pretty weird. Last I heard she OD'd in LA, but I guess not. I can't believe it was her."

"Why was she going after you now?"

"I don't know." Steve didn't know if that was the truth, Danny still looked like he was holding something back, but Steve didn't really care. Danny had just spoken more than three words when he explained the story, so Steve was satisfied. He still had that far-off glazed look, but he was responding. That was the first step. The second step was trying to hold back the guilt that Steve felt that led to his whole situation. Maybe if he had pushed harder into finding Goscov before she disappeared, her boyfriend wouldn't have been killed by Danny. Then she wouldn't be coming after him. Maybe if Steve hadn't pushed so hard for Danny to take that trail, it wouldn't have come down so close today. Maybe if Steve had just been in Danny's place, he wouldn't feel so bad.

"Uh, sir, you're bleeding," the EMT working on Danny pointed out, snapping Steve out of his thoughts. He looked down at his shoulder, where dark red stained the green of his shirt, remembering he had gotten shot. Danny looked up in shock at his partner, who carefully shrugged it off.

"It's nothing, it's just a scratch." Danny's mouth dropped open, not believing the words he was hearing. The EMT looked in just about the same shock, calling for his buddy sitting up in the passenger seat. The second EMT came from the front, pulling on his gloves and grabbing gauze pads. The EMT checked out the wound before pressed the pads on the front and back of Steve's shoulder, making him wince slightly.

"Got a through and through, and possibly a good amount of blood loss. Why didn't you say anything?"

"Yeah, Steve, I thought you said it was just a scratch? Why didn't you say you were shot? I can't believe you just decided to walk around with a hole in your shoulder and call it a scratch. I knew you were an animal, but this is beyond human. Did you ever learn basic communication? Like, I don't know, 'hey Danny I know we're in this fight but I just got shot, so we're probably going to need another ambulance,' or something maybe?" Steve nodded with each statement, mostly just enjoying the sound of Danny ranting again. If Danny was ranting, all was good.

"Do you even have an ounce of self-preservation? I mean, do you even care if you make it back home at the end of the day? I do. I'd like to go home at night, tuck in Grace, sit down, watch some TV. I'd actually like to live to see the next day, Steven."

"I know. That's why it's my job." Danny froze at the words uttered from his partner's mouth. The EMTs continued to do their jobs on the continuous ride to the hospital but completely enthralled with the conversation held in front of them.

"Excuse me? Come again?"

"I said it's my job," Steve said seriously, thinking about how different everything could've turned out. Steve was not good at opening up or talking about his feelings, but this was something he knew from day one. "It's my job to get you home at the end of the day. So you can tuck in Gracie every night, sit down, live to see the next day, all that. If I can get you home, that's all that matters."

"You idiot. What about yourself? Don't you want to go home?"

"I wish it were that simple. I've done things, Danno. Some really bad ones and I can't undo them. I want to, but I can't. So if I can make sure you make it through another day, get you home to a good, it sure as hell won't make up for the bad I've done, but it would help. I have to protect you guys. if it came down to who wasn't going home, I'd pick myself in a heartbeat. You have Grace you have to go home to. Chin and Kono have each other and all their other cousins to go home to. As long as you are safe, it doesn't matter what happens to me." Danny couldn't believe his ears. He knew Steve was self-sacrificing and would do anything for the team, but he didn't think it went this far.

"Steve, that is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard you say. If my buddy here wasn't making sure I don't die myself, I would reach over there and slap you senseless. You don't understand. If it's your job to make sure I get home, then it's my job to make sure you get home too. Everyone makes mistakes, man. Don't you think I've made bad choices too? That doesn't make me have a death wish. You aren't alone here buddy. That's what a partner is for. And trust me, Gracie loves her Uncle Steve too. So do not ever tell me that you have no one to come home to, because I promise you that is the biggest lie of them all." Steve smiled slightly at his partner's words, everything clicking into place. Danny watched the look in Steve's eyes, slightly full of guilt but understanding.

"You understand? We've got each other's back, all the time. No matter what. I got you."

"Right back at you, Danno."


	5. Five-0

**Whew. Holy crap guys, this is a freaking long chapter. I know it's been a bit of a wait, so I hope this makes up for it. This is the big team chapter, where Steve is pretty much a superhero and saves the day, so if it's a little OOC I apologize, I'm trying to make it realistic and have fun with it at the same time. Also, this chapter has a bunch of flashbacks and violence, so just a heads up for you. **

**The next chapter is going to be a bit of a wait. I've had all of these pre-written and all I've had to do was edit and make changes, but I have not written the last chapter yet. So writing that editing it, plus now I'm doing NaNoWriMo, it might be a little bit. I promise I'll get to it, it's just going to take longer than normal. Then once this story is none, you guys aren't going to hear from me until NaNoWriMo is over, 'cause I need to focus on that. **

**REVIEWS**

**prislynn: Thanks so much! That was so much fun to write!**

**NerdGirl1210: I'm glad you like this so much, here's some more!**

**Alrighty, boys here ya go, have fun with this one for a little while, yeah? I'll be back as soon as I can. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Five-0 **

_**The Elements by TobyMac, and Fighting by David Dunn**_

* * *

It should've been a routine day. Instead, Five-0 was stuck in yet another car chase, speeding down the highway chasing the suspects. Danny gripped the handles on the inside of his Camero like a lifeline, it probably being the only thing keeping him inside the car.

"Can you _please_ slow down?!" Steve ignored his partner's cry from the passenger seat and pushed the gas pedal down further. The case had been going on for far too long, and he wanted things to wrap up already.

It had started on Sunday. Even though it was the weekend, Five-0 had been around the office, finishing up mild cases and turning in paperwork. Duke had put in a call to Steve about a homicide in a rich neighborhood that matched up with the MO of a few other homicides from the past. Rich white couples in high-end neighborhoods were the targets. Always the same, a young couple coming from a family of money. Mysterious circumstances, the deaths almost looking like an accident, but just enough mystery for HPD to pick up on it. But the varying time spans between each murder-anywhere from six weeks to ten years-no connections had been made. The most recent one, the murder of young Millie and Cooper Hailani was closer to twelve years since the last. A profiler lent to the HPD had been looking through old case files and found a possible connection, bringing attention to the case by Duke, which was brought to the governor, then Five-0.

The task force would spend a good part of the next three days tracking down the connection and leads for the murderer. It took them the entirety of those three days to find one solid lead, a name of a local but highly unknown gang leader known for disliking haoles on the Hawaiian Islands. The gang was extremely exclusive, most residents didn't even know it existed. Steve hadn't even heard about it until they interviewed the grandfather of one of Millie Hailani. The gang had started way back before World War II, and Richard Hailani had an unfortunate run-in with them. He was a native Hawaiian, but his war buddies trying to rebuild around after the bombing of Pearl Harbor were haoles. Richard Hailani was spared, but he was held back by gang members as the other men were beaten in front of him. The Isoua Gang as it came to be known, took the name after the founder, Lei Isoua. When Five-0 had asked around and dug into the research, they found that his grandson, Tama Isoua now ran operations. Chin looked into recent operations of theirs, and it seemed like Tama Isoua was a man of many words, but he never took action upon them.

The deeper Chin looked, the more dangerous it got. Just because Tama had a nonviolent approach didn't mean the rest of his gang agreed with him. In an abandoned news article they found from a struggling journalist, two lowlifes named Sam Kaio and Levi Opunui had been taking advantage of the protests and acting on Tama's threats. Kono had also found a financial connection between the men and the families. Kaio and Opunui posed as general contractors to take a look at security systems and protections around the houses, only to come back two nights later and break in through and kill the couples. For a couple of low ranking members of the Isoua gang, they were crafty and smart. Smarter than anyone had ever given them credit four. They had meticulously planned the murders, down to every detail. Only on the last murder did they slip up enough for Five-0 to get the jump on them.

When Steve had led the raid on the safe house the Kaio and Opunui had been using and caught them in the middle of planning another murder. They had run out of the house, throwing down anything they had for obstacles before jumping into their car and speeding away. Steve and Kono had reached the back and fired at the tires, but the bullets bounced off the bumper. Five-0 jumped in their own respective cars and chased them out of the neighborhood and out onto the busy Hawaiian highways.

"You're going to hit someone if you keep driving like this, Steven. Can we please think this through?" Danny shouted over the wail of the siren and Steve slamming on the horn when people didn't move out of his way fast enough.

"I did think this through. If we wait any longer we're going to lose them," Steve shouted back, trying to keep a lid on his temper. It had been a long week on all of them, but Steve had been plagued by this case with every waking and sleeping moment. He had eight total hours of sleep over the past three days, never able to sleep more than two hours a night without the case coming back to haunt him. His team was in the same boat, while they were not as anxious to run head on to the problem to finish. Grace was with Rachel and Stan on a vacation to LA, so Danny didn't have to worry about his daughter, and the cousins didn't have any family events, so the Five-0 office became home for the team. The few couches spread around the office held piles of pillows and blankets for the few precious hours someone could afford to nap. Caffeine had been a necessity in the office, and the coffee supply had gotten dangerously low the day before until Duke showed up with some extra. There was more caffeine than blood in the team's bloodstream, and it was time for the show to get on the road.

Steve kept his eye on the fleeing white van head of them, only faster because of the head start. Steve pushed the gas pedal to the floor, blowing past civilians frantically moving to the right. The Camaro roared as it pushed to close that final gap. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught sight of another van also speeding down the other side of the highway in the opposite direction, but he left it alone. HPD could handle the reckless speeder, they had more important things. Chin's bright red Mustang pulled up beside the Camaro, Chin at the wheel as Kono turned in her seat towards Danny.

"_What are we going to do? They aren't stopping, and unless we tap the bumper we aren't getting anywhere. At this rate we can't even catch up to them_," Kono said, her voice coming in clear through the comms.

"I don't know, Steven thinks he's in the Indy 500, so maybe we can," the sarcasm was thick and the jab was directly aimed at Steve, who wasn't paying attention. Kono and Danny were looking at each other and their drivers, Chin kept his eyes on the van in the slowly shortening distance, but Steve wasn't looking at the road at all. Danny noticed this and felt his face flushed red. It was bad enough he was driving like a maniac, but this was off the charts

"McGarrett, keep your eyes on the freakin' road! I know you can do this in your sleep, but I would like-"

"Danny, _get down_!"

Steve cut off Danny's rant in a second as the van he had been watching on the other side of the highway suddenly turn and cross over the flat grassy section between the two highways. The van entered on their highway driving the wrong direction, right towards Five-0's vehicles. Time slowed and he had mere seconds to act as he watched the van barrel towards the Camaro head-on. Steve knew the possibility of surviving a head-on collision was sketchy at best, and there wasn't enough time to brake or accelerate to get out of the way. So Steve acted on his instinct of getting everyone else home safe and spun the wheel hard to the right. The Camaro's wheel screeched on the concrete and the Camaro turned so it was sideways to the incoming van.

"_Steve!"_

Steve heard Danny scream his name and time sped back up, just as the white van made contact with the driver's side door. Steve felt the impact and the sharp tug of the seatbelt as it tried and failed to keep him in his seat. Glass shattered and it rained down on him, cutting into his legs, his arms, and he felt the cool air. He felt weightless for a moment before he hit the hood of the van and rolling off the side. Steve hit the concrete with a thud, unconscious before he even touched the ground. As he lay on the ground, the van pushed the Camaro into Chin's Mustang, forcing both cars off the road. The Mustang rolled in the grass, coming to a standstill on its roof while the Camaro was standing vertically on the passenger side door.

It took a minute for Steve to open his eyes, but it felt like years. As soon as he came out from the blissfully pain-free zone, he was hit by crashing waves of agony. He heard himself groan, an echo-y sound that sounded inhuman. He had been in car crashes before-it was more of an occupational hazard-but he hadn't been in a car crash this bad in a long time. His chest barely moved as he tried to take control of his breathing and the pain. Steve blinked as he tried to open his eyes, but the bright Hawaiian sun was doing him no favors. Unable to do anything but lay there, Steve fell back into his training and took stock of what he knew. They were chasing their suspects, a stray van broke over the highways and crashed into them. A coincidence? Becoming more unlikely the second. Steve's head pounded, he could feel the blood pounding in his ears. Warm liquid ran down his face and neck, more blood on top of the concussion he knew he had. The muscles in his neck were tense and tight, and every inch he moved his head sent waves up pain up to his head. He wiggled his fingers and toes, thankful for no spinal injuries. His left side hurt more than anything else, ignoring nausea he lifted his head up to take a look. His left knee was bent oddly, and his shoulder felt slightly out of place. The worst was a piece of the Camaro's door that was currently lodged in his side, just over his hip. Steve laid his head back down, catching his breath as black dots swarmed his vision. He had to try again, he just… needed one more minute.

Keeping his head as straight as possible, Steve lifted up again a minute later realizing he was still laying in the middle of the highway. Flashes of red and blue caught his eye, and he saw HPD blocking off the highway. He heard the wail of an ambulance in the distance, and his concern topped off. Danny. Chin. Kono. Where were they? Are they alright? Steve figured he was the only one who got thrown out of the car, that explained where all the glass that had stuck itself inside his arms and legs came from, but he needed to find the rest of his team. He needed to know they were okay. Biting his lip to keep from crying out-not that it did much anyway-Steve kept his left arm close to his chest and pushed up to a seated position with his right. It was a miracle his back wasn't injured, but his neck and head were a constant reminder that this wasn't he could just walk away from. However impossible it seemed, that was exactly what he planned to do. It was slow and agonizing, but inch by inch he got to his feet. Right then an ambulance pulled up behind him, paramedics running out of the vehicle.

"Sir, sir, stop! You can't be moving right now! You need to sit down!" The EMTs were amazed and horrified at the sight of their patient, who had been taken a direct hit from a speeding van and thrown out of the window, get up and start walking. But Steve did just that. He looked like the undead, limping and hunched over to keep the pain an a minimal, but he was moving. It took all his strength to just put one foot in front of the other. Steve shook with each step, and he was concerned that his body wouldn't hold him up, but he couldn't give up. He needed to find his team. Steve ignored the warnings of the paramedics who tried to reason with him and didn't stop moving until he reached the end of the highway. When he did, Steve caught a glimpse of shining black metal and his heart dropped to his stomach. He froze, mouth dropping open as his brain tried to make sense of the scene before him. Just off the highway, Chin's pristine Mustang was crushed and upside down, while Danny's beloved Camaro was on it's side. He saw the cars and he cringed at the thought of the damage and possible injuries, but his team was nowhere to be found. He heard the paramedics run up behind him, and he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, let us help you, we-"

"Don't touch me," Steve growled, knocking the paramedic's hand off his shoulder and continuing the visual search. "Just… _back off_." It just didn't make any sense. They were hurt, they couldn't walk away from the wreck either. But they weren't there? Steve's brain was sluggish and it hurt to think. Steve groaned as he brought his hand to his head. The paramedics listened to him and didn't touch him, but they were buzzing around him like an annoying fly. Steve racked his concussed brain, trying to think of a solution to where his team went. He had broken cars, no van, and no team. Movement in front of him caught his attention and he looked up so suddenly the muscles in his neck twinged, his body almost freezing up completely. Duke was in front of him, eyes heavy with concern.

"McGarrett? Steve? You alright?" Steve opened his mouth, but it took a second for words to actually form.

"Duke. Where's my team? Where's… Danny and K-Kono and- and Chin?" Steve stuttered, his arms flailing to catch hold on the Sergeant. Duke grabbed Steve and held him upright, staring the Commander in the face.

"We don't know. They aren't here. Neither is Kaio and Opunui. They're gone," the words struck Steve like bullets, and he couldn't breathe. Couldn't breathe, couldn't breathe... He stared down at his vest, the tightness not helping his ribs as they protested every single breath. Not able to get in enough air, he tugged at the straps of his vest, trying to get it undone. All he wanted was some air, so he could breathe. If he could breathe, he could get better and find his team. Duke recognized the distress and waved over the paramedics.

"But we're going to find them, Steve. I promise you, we are going to find them. But you've got to get help. Please, let them help you." Steve felt the hands of the paramedics on him again, and he fought back. This time, his strength was fading, and they had a much stronger grip on him. One brought over a stretcher while the other two wrestled Steve towards it.

"No! Let me go! I gotta… gotta find them! They're missing, I have to find them! I said _don't touch me!"_ Steve shouted, fighting back. A little voice inside of him that sounds an awful lot like Danny told him that going with the EMTs was a good thing, but Steve didn't want to listen. This was his team missing, his 'ohana. He was the one who pushed so much for a chase, and if something bad happened to them, it would be his fault. Steve fought until the paramedics grabbed a sedative, plunging it into his skin that slowly made his eyes slip shut as he fell back into the blissful unawareness.

* * *

Danny's head shot up with a start, eyes blinking wide at the dim surroundings. There was no light in the small room, which after a minute of guessing looked to be a confessional room. Danny had seen a few before back in New Jersey, but he had never been inside of one. They were awfully small, no more than four feet by four feet, and this one was no different. The wall normally separating the spaces between the penitent and the priest was knocked down so it was bigger than normal. Danny couldn't see, but he could feel a person next to him, and another in front of him. His hand was tied to the chair he was sitting in, so he moved it as much as he could until he felt the hand beside him, grabbing it. At his knees, he felt the legs of the person opposite of him pressed up against his, but their ankles tied to the chair prevented him from moving any more. Blinking he tried to catch a glimpse of the people he was with, but it was more than a good chance that it was Five-0. Who else would it be?

"Steve? Chin? Kono? You guys alright?" He kicked out slightly at the legs in front of him and squeezed the hand, trying to get a response. After a few seconds, he got two groans that sounded like music to his ears, and they were awake a minute later.

"Danny? What happened?" Chin asked softly, trying to keep the pain at bay. With each breath he took his ribs were set on fire, from experience he knew a few were cracked, if not broken. He felt blood running down the side of his head, tied in with the headache, and his wrist was too sore.

"I'm not sure. Steve saw a van right before it hit us, and we must've crashed into you guys. I hit my head and don't remember anything else after that. How are you guys?"

"Fine, headache and a sprained wrist, best guess," Chin said plainly, giving his best shot. It wasn't accurate, and it definitely wasn't a doctor's opinion, but in situations like this, it is best to know the truthful status so escape could be planned accordingly.

"I'm alright. I think my shoulder is out of place, and there's something sticking out of my thigh, but I can't see it, I can only feel it," Kono said, using the say quickfire method as Chin. Danny nodded, taking it all into consideration while scanning the rest of the small room. It didn't look like they could fit anyone else in the room, but they were still missing one teammate.

"Where's Steve?" Danny asked, his voice on edge but not fully concerned yet. Chin and Kono had answered him, but he didn't hear anything from his was Steve they were talking about. He could survive anything. Right? Just outside of the box, they heard the quiet entrance of footsteps and voices. They immediately quieted to make sure their captors didn't know they were awake and so they could hear the conversation outside. As soon as the voices got closer, they recognized them right away.

"You sure they didn't track us? I know we're deep out here but I don't want any of the cops snooping around," Anger was a strong undertone in Kaio's voice like he was reprimanding a small child.

"Yes, I took care of it, there's no way they could track us. If they had, they would be here by now," Opunui responded, not a reassuring answer for the Five-0 team.

"What about the Commander? Is he dead?" At Kaio's blunt words Danny's eyes widened and Kono bit back a gasp. No way. Steve couldn't be dead. He wouldn't give up that easy. But Danny remembered what happened. Steve brought his attention to the speeding van and swerved the car so the van collided with the driver's side. Steve's side. He saved Danny, but put himself in danger like he always did. And now he wasn't there with them. There was no telling if their leader was dead or alive.

"No. But trust me, it won't take long. I saw him right after we loaded everyone up, he wasn't looking good. He's good as dead."

Danny bit his lip to keep from making a noise, but it didn't matter anyway. No more than a second later the door to the confessional was swung open, shining light into the darkroom.

* * *

At the same time twenty-six miles away, Steve McGarrett opened his eyes to a bright room, immediately regretting the action. The light stabbed knives into his eyes and it only made his headache worse. A slight edge was taken off, but the pain didn't go away completely. It never did. When he finally worked up to opening his eyes he stared at a white-tiled ceiling, telling him all that he needed. A hospital. _Again_. When he went to turn his head he found that he couldn't, something heavy was holding his head in place. His breath quickened and he found he couldn't breathe, despite the oxygen whiskers under his nose. Suddenly a face came into view, and he focused on it.

"Commander, I'm Dr. Darrin McCoy, can you blink twice if you can understand me?" Steve followed the directions and blinked twice, getting an approving nod from the doctor. Steve moved his mouth until the words came out in chunks

"...' happened?" Dr. McCoy sighed and held his clipboard a little closer, adjusting his glasses.

"You were in a car accident. If you can't remember all the details, that's completely normal. With a concussion like yours, I'd be surprised if you remembered any of it." At his words, Steve was met with flashes of images, first of a van, then it heading towards them. He turned the car so he could take the brunt instead of Danny. After that, there wasn't anything else.

"Where's my team? I… I need to see 'em," he bit out the words, eyes searching the ceiling. He couldn't move his head and it was getting really annoying. Tears burned at his eyes, in pain and frustration. He just wanted to get out so he could find his friends!

"We're working on it. I was told that HPD is out looking for them, but they don't have much to go on. They will find them, and I know you're anxious to help, but you need to rest. Your body took quite a beating, and it's going to need time to heal." Flippin over the first page of the clipboard he took a look at the list and started to read off it.

"You flew through the driver side window, where pieces of glass embedded themselves in various places. We dug out those out, cleaned and stitched them if necessary. Going through the window caused gave you a grade 3 concussion, but there is no intracranial bleeding and you seem to have little memory loss, which is a good thing, but we do need to keep an eye out. You have a minor case of whiplash, therefore the brace. It is merely a precaution for now, but trust me, without it you could be in a lot of pain. You had a partially dislocated shoulder that relocated itself when you hit the ground, but we set that properly and put it in a sling to keep movement to a minimal. The posterior cruciate ligament in your knee was injured, I'm assuming it caught under the dashboard before you went out the window. It's just a sprain, and it'll get better with limited movement and icing." Taking a deep breath, Dr. McCoy fixed his glasses on top of his head.

"We pulled out a chunk of the car door out of your side, just above your hip. The metal scratched the bone but there was no other lasting damage from that. You are extremely lucky that it missed all your vital organs. There was a minor artery that was damaged with the metal, but we were able to fix that up before too much blood was lost. It's nearly three inches, but we were able to get it free without damaging much else and preventing infection, so the stitches should help it heal up nicely. You've had quite the ordeal, Commander, I promise you want to stay on the good drugs for as long as possible." Steve took all the information seriously, but his decision was already made. It had been made from the beginning.

"Thanks, Doc, but I need to get out of here. I need to find my team, and I can't do that from here." Dr. McCoy looked at Steve like he shouldn't have been surprised, but he was anyway.

"No, I insist you need to stay here. Your injuries are not severe, but push yourself too hard and they could easily become so. I _strongly _suggest you stay."

"I hear you, but I can't wait for them to be found. It could be too late. Give me whatever papers I need to sign and I'll be out of your hair. As soon as I find them, I'll come back and rest or whatever. But I have to find them first." McCoy didn't like where this was going, but he couldn't deny the man the AMA papers, he had a right to do so.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive. Just get me the papers. Please." Normally Steve wouldn't play off emotions to get things, he would just throw around his badge and rank and he normally got what he needed. But pulling rank in a regular hospital wasn't going to get him anywhere, so emotions were the best bet. This time, Steve didn't even have to pretend for the emotional play. This was his team, that was all the excuse he needed. They needed him, and he needed them even more so. McCoy sighed and called for a nurse, who brought in the AMA papers a few minutes later, along with Steve's bloody and ripped clothes. McCoy handed him stacks of paper with information on the injuries, just in case, and Steve limped out of the hospital.

As soon as he walked out the door he was faced with the first of many problems. He didn't have a car to drive back to headquarters. His truck was back at his house, and pieces of the Camaro were still getting picked up from off the side of the highway. He couldn't call Chin or Kono either because they were missing too. Catherine was a no because she was out collecting intel on a battleship out in the Indian Ocean. Normally he would call her and get her to move a satellite just enough for him to use it for a case, but they talked and she said they were in a strict no-contact zone. Steve was starting to feel the impact of not having his team at his back. He never fully realized how much he relied on his team, and when he really needed them they were gone. Pulling out his phone, he made a few calls, getting everyone he could to help out. A patrol car pulled up at the front of the hospital, his ride back to Iolani Palace.

Thanking the officer as he slowly got himself out of the police car, he stared at the entrance of Five-0 HQ. It was the same thing he saw every day, but now it would be different. Getting through security with just a few curious glances, he made his way up to the Five-0 offices. His suspicions were true. Nothing felt the same without his team there. There was no Chin typing away on the computer table, pulling up traces and maps in a matter of seconds, always smiling and in the mood for jokes. The surfboard was still propped up in the corner of Kono's office, but there was no rider for it and no excellent shot for those risky calls. There was no Danny, short in stature and temper made for good-natured teasing and rants about whatever may arise. It just wasn't the same.

While it wasn't the same, there was a team behind him. Standing around the table were three good men, no way replacements for his team but good men indeed: Adam Noshimuri, Duke Lukela, and Jerry Ortega. Adam had been a risk for trusting at first, but with everything he and Kono had gone through, Steve knew he could trust them. Duke was a good man and an even better police sergeant, always having Five-0's back. And Jerry was new, but he proved himself when he helped Five-0 unlock an age-old conspiracy that helped solve a murder. Trust was still undefined for them, but at this rate, he needed everyone's help if they were going to find his team.

"Ok, so what do we have?" Steve started, leaving heavily against the computer table. He knew the doctor was right, he really shouldn't be up and walking around, let alone even out of the hospital. His head pounded with every step, and he was limping heavily with his injured knee and the stitches in his side. The knee was braced and the stitched were reinforced with tight bandages wrapped about his middle. He had ditched the sling long ago, and little squares of gauze and butterfly stitches kept little cuts closed. The latest round of pain medication was kicking in, but he had just shut his eyes to try to block out the pain when a familiar ripple of pain ran up his body.

_Steve opened his eyes and looked out the desert in front of him. There was nothing around them, he had checked. He looked at his watch, making sure they were still going north and took another step. Then another. Then one more. That was all he _could _do. With each step, he felt the hole in his side stretch and tear in every which way. If he hadn't injected himself with morphine he would be in a world of pain. It was getting hard to ignore the stabbing pain in his side every few seconds, but it was better than nothing. _

_Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett and Ensign Jackson Reedy were on a two-man mission to a small village in Afghanistan for refueling supplies for the men stationed there, and to gather information on the local extremist groups they had been keeping an eye on. The village was open to the American Navy solely for the protection it gave them from local groups, and in return often gave information. The next closest town wasn't for nearly 100 miles, and it was known for being sympathetic for the terrorist, so it would not be welcoming relief. _

_As soon as Lieutenant Commander McGarrett had flown the BlackHawk over the town, something was wrong. Even being a small village, it was always reported as lively, people always moving about the town. But there was absolutely no movement. Ensign Reedy kept his eyes glued on the village below them, looking for any signs of life. _

"_Uh, LT? You better take a look at this," Reedy's voice came crackling over the headset, and McGarrett turned to look where his finger pointed out the window. Steve recognized the building right away. The men that were stationed in the town set up in one of the smallest buildings in the town, a short little abandoned house they shared with a host family. Set in the center of the village, it was no different from the others, nothing noticeable about it. But now, that house was reduced to nothing but ashes, and the buildings around in the same state. Steve immediately saw signs of the explosion that had leveled a portion of the town, and his stomach twisted uneasily. _

"_I'm going to swing back around to the other side, and we'll touch down," Steve said and Reedy nodded, holding a tighter grip on his gun. Even though fairly new, Steve had run a few missions with the newer SEAL, and he liked how Reedy worked. A few more missions and Steve was even considering getting Reedy transferred to his team, not having to borrow him all the time. Steve turned the chopper ever so slightly, and Reedy caught movement. _

"_Target! Three o'clock!" The target Reedy had called out opened fire on their helicopter, and more unseen targets shot at the helicopter. "We're taking fire!" Reedy continued to shout unhelpfully. _

"_I noticed, Ensign, how about you shut your yap and shoot back!" Steve shouted, maneuvering the helicopter so he could land behind one of the buildings. It wouldn't be much but it would provide a little bit of cover. Reedy shot back, but more targets seemed to be coming out from every building. The glass seemed to be holding under the gunfire for a bit before one fateful bullet shattered the glass. Reedy moved from the passenger seat and slid open the door in the back, taking cover behind the metal lining to fire back. Steve had made it behind the building and started to hover down to the ground when he heard Reedy grunt in the back. _

"_Reedy! You alright?" Steve turned his head for a minute and caught a glimpse of Reedy pushing himself back up, a spreading red stain near his shoulder. _

"_I'm fine, just get us on the ground!" Normally that kind of tone from an ensign to his superior officer wouldn't be tolerated, but this was different. This was combat. Combat didn't care who was who, everyone was a victim. Steve pushed faster, trying to miss most of the bullets and keep the helicopter steady. He had almost cleared the roof of the building when he heard a familiar whistling sound, and he looked up in horror. Before Steve could even blink the projectile from the rocket launcher slammed into the side of the helicopter, exploding. Out of the corner of his eyes Steve watched as Reedy was blown clear out of the helicopter, and Steve shook in his seat, head slamming against a metal bar. With much protest, his eyes had slipped shut and he never felt the helicopter crash to the ground. _

_Steve opened his eyes again seconds later, burning metal crunching all around him. He shifted slightly which only sent a crashing wave of pain over him and he bit back a groan. Steve could feel the blood streaming down his face from unintentionally headbutting the metal, but he pushed that pain to the side. Lifting his head slightly he noticed his legs trapped in the twisted frame of metal that was once called the dashboard. After trying to sit up a little further, he painfully found a piece of the rotor piercing through the top of the helicopter and through his side. The fire burned around him, and Reedy was nowhere to be found. Still hearing the sharp crack of gunfire around him, he knew there were no options. His legs were pinned to the point they were numbed, and his side was impaled by a rotor blade that went straight into his seat. He couldn't move even if he tried. He was a SEAL, the best of the best, but he could do nothing._

_Somehow, by some miracle or act of God, Steve made it out of the helicopter. He staggered out, the wound in his side just that much bigger, looking for his teammate. Steve found Reedy, face down on the ground, a few meters away from the helicopter. There was more blood than the body, and Steve could feel the hot burn of tears on his bloodied cheeks. Slowly and painfully, Steve turned the young man over, expecting the damage but nonetheless surprised by it. Dropping to one knee, Steve had one hand on Reedy's chest and turned to the side to puke. The puke was tinged slightly pink, but Steve never noticed. Bringing his ear close to Reedy's mouth, he heard one beautiful intake of breath. It was the best sound in the world. _

_Steve's memory blanked once again, but they were on the road. Not a literal road, but they were walking. Steve had Reedy slung over him, keeping the pressure on his wounds with his body while keeping his one hand tightly pressed up against the hole in his side. Steve had packed it tight with a cloth and stopped the bleeding, just barely. But moving around wasn't helping at all. With that, the barely alive man on his shoulders, and the lack of food and water, Steve didn't know how much longer they had left. He took all that he could from the destroyed helicopter and the bombed town, but the terrorist had wiped it dry. There was nothing left. Except for the bodies. Men. Women. Children. Elderly. Animals. The Navy men. All of them were murdered in cold blood and left in the hot desert to bake. Steve swore that if they made it out alive, he would get the Navy to come help out the village. If. _

_Steve put one foot in front of the other until that was all he could focus on. He didn't know how long he had been walking, but he saw the sunset once. He knew he should probably stop, but if he stopped now he didn't know if he could get back up. So he pushed on. Mere minutes later, Steve would trip over a single rock hidden in the sand and tumble to the ground. Both men would be out before they even hit the sand. They would miss the rescue helicopter that would fly right over them in the next minutes and take them out of the desert. _

"-Steve?" Steve blinked and his eyes finally focused. They were all staring at him, and he gripped tighter against the table. If he didn't sit down in the next couple of seconds, he would hit the floor in an unwanted way.

"Can I…-?" Before Steve could even finish his mumbled sentence, Jerry answered it for him.

"Here you go, Commander." He had run into Steve's office after Steve had suddenly stopped talking and answering their questions. Jerry had seen this kind of reaction before in people that he talked to for information, certain flashbacks were common with PTSD. To someone who's seen action, the slightest thing could set them off. For the short time, Jerry knew the Commander, he had never known Steve to show any of it. But it was an emotional time, and injuries didn't help. So he had grabbed the big comfortable office chair Steve had in his office. The best option would be laying down, but somehow Jerry knew he wouldn't be able to convince Steve to do that.

"Thanks," Steve mumbled, sitting back heavily into the chair. Normally he would've yelled at Jerry for going into his office, but this time was an exception. Thinking back to that dreadful mission, there were too many gaps for Steve's liking. He still never remembered how he got out of the helicopter, it was legitimately impossible to get out of, even for a SEAL. He also couldn't remember going from the city to walking on the road, but he remembered the faces. He remembered all the faces. The people in the village did nothing to deserve all that pain and torture. It wasn't fair. Steve did remember waking up in a Navy hospital a few days later, disoriented and thinking he was still in Afghanistan. The doctors had calmed him down, and once he was calm told him the news. Reedy was dead. He had been dead for a long time. They guessed he had died sometime when they were trying to get out of the town. That struck Steve hard. He had been carrying his man on his shoulders, talking to him, encouraging him. Reedy had a younger brother, and this was his last mission before he got to get a leave and go visit his family. Steve had talked all about Reedy's little brother, and in the end, Reedy had been dead the whole time.

"Steve? Are you ok?" Duke asked quietly as the group fell into another lapse of silence. Steve let out a slow exhale, keeping his eyes on the screen as the pain in his side and leg finally started to ebb away.

"No," Steve said in a rare moment of raw honesty, catching the men off guard. "But I will be once I find my team. So what do we got?" The stunned silence broke and Duke immediately started going into what HPD found.

"We found recent information on Kaio and Opunui, and it looks like they have been plotting a coup for a long time. They've gathered the arms and money to get over, and connections said that they've gotten enough support from most of the crew to actually pull it off. They've been holding their own meets with the crew, and that's where the murders started. We don't know where they've been held, but I have people working on tracking down phone numbers they used, and they're supposed to let me know the minute they have a number."

"I've checked in with some old contacts of mine," Adam added in, pulling a folder out of his briefcase and setting it on the table. "It seems Kaio and Opunui have had been in bed with some major players for a long time. This goes way deeper than just some They even crossed paths with Wo Fat once, he used them for a hit a couple of years ago. They aren't just some up and comers looking to try and run the town. They could if they tried. And that's what it looks like they're doing."

"Jerry?" Steve asked, processing all this information. Something in his gut had told him that these killings went deeper than just revenge for taking the islands, and once again he was right. He was surprised about the involvement with Wo Fat, the man kept showing up everywhere.

"Kaio owns a red Chevy truck, but that's been locked in HPD impound for the last couple months, so they haven't been using it recently. I've been trying to connect cars with the places they've been, but I haven't had much luck. Same with the places. We've already checked Kaio's and Opunui home addresses and those have been cleared. If we can get a phone number, I can track it and possibly get a location for them." In the middle of Jerry's part of the conversation, Duke got a phone call and excused himself from the conversation. He came running back right when Jerry finished his sentence, a half of a smile on his face.

"We got a number, it's on the line and waiting for your call, Commander." Duke placed the phone on the table, and Jerry frantically typed out the tracker on the computer table. Painfully, Steve sat higher up in his chair and stared at the phone, waiting for Jerry to give him the signal.

"Alright, the trace is going… now," Jerry pointed to Steve right as the trace started, and Steve hit the talk button.

"Samuel Kaio, this is Commander Steve McGarrett of the Five-0 Task Force."

"_Ahh, Commander McGarrett. So you still alive, eh? All right, all right, whaddya want?_" Steve had no trouble understanding the thick Hawaiian accent, but he was getting pissed off by the laid back attitude of the man.

"You have my team. I want them back." Straight and to the point, McGarrett style.

"_No, no can do Commander. You know how this works. You want them back, I ask for demands, you tell me you get the demands when you really don't, and I lose everything I got. Not happening. Goodbye, Commander."_ Steve was getting more and more surprised by this man. First, they thought he was some low life thug that just wanted the power. But he was more planned out and meticulous than they thought, and he was smart too.

"Wait! Kaio, just wait a minute," Steve cried out as Jerry waved his hand. They needed more call time for the trace, so Steve resorted to a tactic he'd never use. "Please, just give me proof of life. I just need to know they're ok." Steve was disgusted that he stoop as low as pleading to a criminal, but at the same time, he meant every word. He was beyond worried for his team, and he would do anything to know they were okay.

In the abandoned church, Danny Chin and Kono were listening to every word Kaio was saying. As soon as they heard Steve's name, they all let out a little sigh of relief. He was alive. But as they listened to the conversation, they also came to the conclusion that Kaio was a lot smarter than he let on before, and when the room went silent, they were all concerned. In the next second, the footsteps got louder as someone walked towards their little prison, and part of the window slid open enough for a hand and phone to slide through. Kono was sitting across from Danny and Chin, she was closest to the phone, but none of the ropes would give way enough for her to reach.

"Here you go," Kaio spoke from outside the door, and they weren't sure who it was directed towards. A second later, Steve's voice came over the speaker on the phone.

"_Danny? Chin? Kono? You guys alright?"_ Each of the remaining members of the Five-0 group let out another sigh, thankful for hearing their boss.

"Yeah Steve, we're alright. We're all here. Are you ok?" In Steve's typical fashion, he ignored Danny's question and continued talking up until Kaio pulled the phone out of the confessional and back up to his ear for a private conversation.

"_Don't worry, we're working on getting to you guys, and we're going to find you so-"_

"There's your proof of life, Commander," Kaio said, pacing back and forth on the rotting wood beams, a smile on his face. This had worked out much better than he imagined.

"_You better not touch them, you sonuva-"_

"Save the insults, brah, I don't care. That's all you get. Goodbye, McGarrett." Ignoring the protests Kaio pressed the hang-up button, leaving Steve sputtering. At Five-0 headquarters, Steve spun in his chair till he faced Jerry.

"Please tell me you go that." The shy look on Jerry's face did not give Steve hope.

"Yes. Well, sort of." Jerry pulled the map up on the screen, the flashing triangle centered on part of Diamondhead, no more than twenty minutes from the Palace. "I traced the call to Diamondhead, to the south end of the crater. I've got the southern trails and the summit, plus some of Diamondhead road. I lost him after he ended the call, but he's in that area. That's the best that I can do." Steve rubbed a hand over his face, thankful that they had some sort of a location at least, but not the type he wanted.

"Thanks, Jerry. Good job." Taking a deep breath, Steve used the edge of the table and pushed himself back up into a standing position, hissing slightly when his side tugged painfully. Relief washed over him when the pain was not as sharp as before, the painkillers were finally doing their job. And he needed them to work at full strength for what he was about to do.

"Alright, here's the plan. We're going to split up and cover every inch of this area. Duke, I want you to call in any available units you have and get them on this. You're going to head one team, I'll take one. We'll take our teams up to the top of Diamondhead and work out way down. Adam, I'm giving you a temporary badge and you're going to lead the third team to check out by the road, so don't let me down, okay? Our main focus is on getting them back safe and unharmed. We already know that Kaio and Opunui aren't afraid to kill to get what they want, so we have to maintain situational awareness and make sure all your shots count." The men around the table briefly looked at each other, then at Steve.

"Steve, are you sure about this? Leading a team, I mean? It doesn't even look like you can stand up without help right now," Duke said bluntly. Steve stared down at the police sergeant and unconsciously tightened his grip on the table.

"Thanks, Duke, but I don't need your opinions right now. All that matters is getting my team back, nothing-"

"Calm down, Steve, Duke's just trying to help," Adam cut in, holding his hands up and trying to keep the tension from rising. But however good his intentions were, Steve turned to him with a scowl and a fierceness in his eyes that was usually saved for the interrogation room.

"_You_ don't get to lecture me, Noshimuri, not after all you've done," Steve hissed, fist clenched at his sides. This wasn't helping find his team, but he couldn't seem to stop.

"After all, _I've_ done?" Adam, normally level-headed was getting fed up with Steve's attitude and wasn't holding back anymore.

"_That's enough! Both of you!_" Duke rarely raised his voice, much less at co-workers, but this was getting out of hand. They were spending too much time fighting each other and less time focusing on the real victims. "Save the pissing match for later. And McGarrett, you know better than anyone how much Adam's done for you and Five-0 so back off. I know you're concerned for your team, and your plan works, but we gotta have a better way of doing this." Steve opened his mouth to argue, but Duke talked over him.

"We'll keep the teams, but Steve you're not climbing the trails. You can't even stand, let alone make the hike up."

"This is nothing, I've had-"

"Worse. I know, Steve. But this is not the time to push your limits. We need you as rested us as we can for when we find them. So _you _are taking the road team. You are going to ride with one of the officers, and you are going to leave it to them to do the searching."

"But-"

"Don't argue me on this, Commander, you won't win," Duke was harsh, but he knew it was the only way to get it through Steve's thick skull. "We're going to find them, Steve. We will. But we can't focus on your team if we have to worry about you." Silence followed and for a moment Duke was worried Steve was still going to ignore them. But something in the man's words rang true with Steve, something similar he had said to Danny once before.

"Ok. Fine. I'll take the street." Duke let out a silent sigh of relief while being inwardly surprised that the stubborn leader of Five-0 actually listened to him. Silence lapsed as they stared at the blinking triangle that held the rough location of where Kaio was. Where Kaio was, the rest of Five-0 was too. Hopefully.

"What about me? What am I?" Jerry asked, breaking the silence. He wasn't Five-0, but neither was Adam and he was running a team anyway. The other three men looked at each other and had the same exact thought.

"Backup."

Jerry's eyes lit up. "Out there?"

"No," Steve shook his head. "We need you here. Coordinate with HPD and EMS. Watching it from here. And if he calls back, I need you to trace it and give me a better location, okay? Watch the palace. You're running comms, so keep us all updated."

"Yes, sir!" One mock salute later and Jerry ran off to where Steve had directed him to get the comms, and Steve took the slow steps to his office. Halfway across the floor his left leg twitched uncomfortably and almost gave out on him, but fortunately, Adam was next to him and held out a hand to keep him balanced. Steve made it the rest of the way without a problem, but Adam hovered by his side until they were inside.

"Thanks," Steve said quietly, putting his right hand out on the desk while his left arm curled around his stomach.

"Don't mention it."

"Adam," Steve said, stopping him right as he was about to walk out of Steve's office. His face twisted up, trying to get the right words out. "About what I said, I'm sorry. That wasn't right, and I shouldn't have said it. You've really helped out around here, and I haven't thanked you enough. I'm just… frustrated, and _tired_. I want my team back."

"Steve, you don't have to explain to me," Adam said, the million-dollar grin on his face as genuine as ever. "I want to find them as much as you do. And I understand. The heat of the moment. There are no hard feelings."

"Thanks, man."

Steve grabbed his gear, staring at the people running around the Five-0 office that wasn't his team and sighed. Kaio had no reason to hold his team. There was no ransoming, no blackmailing, nothing. Kaio didn't want anything from Steve, which made him that much more dangerous. If he didn't want anything, nothing was going to stop him from killing the rest of Five-0. If they didn't move fast enough, Steve didn't know if he would be able to stop it. Steve shrugged on his tac vest, groaning as it pulled at the stitches through his t-shirt. The long-gone sling was in the bottom of the police cruiser, and his shoulder wouldn't cause him problems until he started to lift heavy things. His knee brace fit snugly under his cargo pants-the same ones Danny relentless made fun of-but the pain was still very real. Plus the stitches in his side, he was relying heavily on his right side. It was going to be rough, but he wasn't lying before. He had been through worse and made it out alive. Knowing that his team was counting on him was the only thing keeping him going.

Steve met the officer he was riding if down at the front of the palace, hopping in the passenger side door. Officer Cassidy was a nice man, Steve had passed by him every once and a while in the palace. The tall man was a known jokester, most of the stories spread around in HPD had him in some part of it. But when it came to the job, he was all serious. He was one of the best cops Steve had seen, and he was glad HPD had such capable officers helping out around, he couldn't ask for anything else. But no matter how qualified the officers were, nothing was the same. Steve was used to his team, how they worked and how they moved like a well-oiled machine. He hadn't worked that well with a group of people since he was in the SEALs. They were more than a team, they were 'ohana. And there was no way he was letting his 'ohana down today.

The ride to Diamondhead was mostly silent, Cassidy tried for some small talk as the sirens screamed and civilian cars moved out of the way for their speeding vehicle, but Steve was focusing on the problem. When they pulled up to the road, spare cars set up roadblocks on either end of the highway and moved the traffic around, while the remainders of Steve's team started searching. Diamondhead road wasn't huge, but with the surrounding forest and trees, it would be an intensive, hands-on search. With all the officers tac-ed up, they broke into small teams and spread out, combing through the thick greenery. Steve was paired up with Cassidy, with his gun held out close to his chest, staying mostly on the road. The other teams dove deeper into the forest, guns drawn searching for any specific clues.

Steve and Cassidy stayed on the street, keeping a watch of the teams as they moved on. Steve felt a pull on his side and dull pain shot up his leg with every step, but he was getting more annoyed with Cassidy every minute. The man was never farther than three feet from him, and he was watching Steve more than he was the surroundings. Steve understood the concern, but he didn't need a babysitter. They needed to focus all their resources on finding his team.

"Cassidy."

"Sir?" Steve rubbed the top of his leg dropping his gun slightly.

"I'm going to run back by the patrol car, take some more meds. Knees acting up again. You keep looking, alright? I'll hang out there for a while, rest my knee a bit." Cassidy looked with one eyebrow raised.

"Are you sure? I could come with, when you're better we can check out the area over there?"

"I'm not going to get better until we find my team, Cassidy. So let me take this break, and keep looking. I'll stay put, I promise." Cassidy was still slightly unbelieving, but he nodded and joined some other officers near the outskirts of the road. Steve turned and limped towards the squad car, finally able to breathe for a moment. For once, he didn't have an ulterior motive for getting away, he really just needed to be alone. He was no help in the search, and the extra painkillers he had thrown in the car really would help.

The slow-moving process to the squad car finished with him swinging open the driver's door and lowering himself into a seated position. He was half in and half out, his right leg stretched inside the car while his leg hung out in the air. Steve snagged the bottle of pills off the passenger seats right before it rolled off the edge and swallowed a couple dry. They wouldn't kick in for a little bit, but it was better to get ahead of it in case they were on the move. Staring at the bottle in his hands, he decided to stick it in one of his empty pockets on his vest. Where a grenade or flashbang would normally go his yellow bottle of pills slid in neatly, just in case. When Steve looked back up at the forest, the movement just to the right caught his eye. Using the frame of the car he pulled himself up to a standing position and turned towards the movement. About a hundred yards away, Steve found himself making eye contact with a man he'd seen before. The man's face had been on the computer. He was one of Isoua's men, who was reported to have switched over to Kaio and Opunui's side. Steve and the man held eye contact for a few seconds, the momentary shock freezing them in their spot before the thug turned and sprinted back into the woods.

Steve swore under his breath and took off at a slow jog. He knew that he wouldn't be able to run, at least not without major protests from his body. He kept that jog as he ran into the forest, following the footsteps in the dirt as best as he could. As Steve kept an eye on the trail and for any sight of the man he saw, he brought on hand up to his ear.

"Cassidy, I've got-" Before Steve could finish talking, static-filled his ear and he could barely hear himself talking.

"_What ...-Steve?... can't-…. Repeat!"_ Cassidy's voice crackled over the line, in between bursts of static before the officer's voice was cut off completely. Steve grabbed his phone from his back pocket and stared at the no signal flashing back at him. Somehow, Kaio had cut cell and radio frequency over here, so there was no more calling for backup. Steve thought about turning back, going out of the woods and grabbing the officers to search more, but there was no time. He spotted the shirt from the thug a couple of yards ahead of him. If he turned back now, Steve was going to lose his only lead. So Steve pocketed his phone, raised his gun, and kept going.

Steve didn't know how far he had walked. Even going into the late afternoon, early evening, the Hawaiian sun kept the area a blazing 97 degrees, and with pants and a vest on it got _hot_. But Steve knew most of his sweating wasn't just from the heat. Waves of pain rolled up from his stomach, and when he had checked under his shirt last, little specks of red dotted the gauze covering his stitches. Even with the occasional sips of water, he took from his bottle, his head pounded like he was dehydrated, but it was just the concussion trying to get its way. The second round of painkillers was doing their job, for the most part, but Steve was starting to hope that the guy he was following got to his base sooner than later.

Steve was a ghost. Even injured his training kicked into the max level, and he was invisible. The thug had stopped running minutes ago when he was sure Steve had lost him, but Steve was always two steps behind him. Steve used nature as his cover, hiding behind the trees and rocks, covering his tracks behind him so no one would know he was there. It was all drilled into SEALs' brains since day one. _Don't get caught. _

By some miracle, Steve's prayers had come true and the thug led Steve right to the building in the forest. It was probably a twenty-minute walk from the highway, so they weren't all that far from the highway. But turning back now, especially with the thug catching sight of Steve in the first place could mean that Kaio and Opunui would have the opportunity to pack their gear and leave, either taking his team with them or killing them on the spot. Neither option sounded good, and he wanted a third. One where the thug told Kaio that the cops were there waiting for them. Steve was counting on it.

Steve slowly circled the old abandoned church, taking in as much information as he could about the building. It was small, probably just over a thousand square feet. Big enough for maybe one tiny sanctuary room, with two small offices. Vines and overgrown shrubs covered the outside walls, growing up almost as tall as Steve. Thicker bushes could provide some cover, but not for long periods of time. There were three main points of entry, the double front doors, a back door, and a third possibly custodial door on the right side. Windows were also a possibility, but Steve didn't really want to break any windows this time. A ladder hung off the side of the building near the backdoor, the gate that was supposed to be covering it long broken. Normally, Steve would use the ladder and climb up to the roof, gain the advantage from up there. But in his condition, he knew he wouldn't make it very far. There was going to be a fight to get this team back, he just knew it.

Counting men, there were four tangos on the outside of the church, one for each wall, and at least six more inside. Including Kaio and Opunui, he had watched as four more men had walked past the dirty windows, telling him there was more activity inside. He couldn't find any window to give him a glimpse of where his team was hidden, but he would have to make do without for right now. If he moved quickly, he could take out the four men outside without much of a problem, but he would be quickly outgunned and outnumbered the second he stepped inside of the church.

Steve traded his gun for his knife, his Navy SEAL issued Ontario MK 3 and flipped it in his palm. While not his favorite of all times, his issued knife was at the top of the list. The ten-ounce knife was nearly a feather in his hand, useful for thousands of situations. There were very few situations where a knife couldn't fix the problem, at least in Steve's train of thought. In this scenario, a knife was the only good solution. Steve was running on pure adrenaline by now, he didn't feel a thing. Which was good, because with all the movement he was about to do, his body would not like him.

Working his way from the back first, Steve silently approached the guard in the back when he caught sight of his untied shoe. Without a sound, Steve sprinted towards the unsuspecting guards, keeping his body low. The guard didn't even get a chance to react before Steve swung the knife upward, catching the Hawaiian man in the throat. The awful gurgling sound that Steve had grown all too used to came from the man's throat as the knife sliced through skin, veins, and arteries. Steve shushed the man even while he knew the guard had no control over the bodily noises that he made in the last moments of life. Steve dragged the guards back into the woods, trying to keep the majority of the blood from dropping on the ground. All they knew was that their boy was missing, they would never find the blood that led to his death. Once the man was hidden behind the bush, Steve used the guard's shirt to wipe the blood from his elbow and arm, wiping the traces of the man's death away.

The movements repeated with two other men, each cleaner than the last until there was only one left. This guard had his back pressed up against the wall, right next to the front doors. He was harder because there was nothing for Steve to hide behind or use to his advantage. Steve would just have to move quicker, faster to get him out. Keeping his footsteps light so they barely broke the grass, he made his way around the right side of the church, ducking out of sight from the window. Steve pressed his back against the wood paneling of the church, right at the corner as Steve listened for noises. All he could hear was the man's breathing, and the occasional bird flying by. As long as he moved fast, he would be fine.

Steve stepped around the corner, and with luck, the guard had turned his back to Steve to start walking in the opposite direction. Steve ran up behind the guard and sliced across his neck with the blade, but some blood that made the handle slick loosened Steve's grip. Instead of a clean, straight through slice, it only cut about halfway leaving the guard gasping for air but still functional. The guard swung his gun around and used to butt of the gun to slam it into Steve's midsection. Normally a hit like that would hurt, but it wouldn't slow Steve down whatsoever. This time was different.

The pain that Steve had tried to keep toned down with painkillers exploded in one hit, blossoming up from his hip to his chest, and for a second he lost the ability to breathe. Steve dropped to one knee as he struggled to breathe, while the guard just laughed, bringing his gun closer to Steve

"Look at you _haole_, one hit and you're-" Before the Hawaiian man could finish his insult Steve whipped out his gun and shot him point-blank in the forehead. The shot rang out in the quiet woods, and a pack of birds flew out from the trees. Steve sighed as the man hit the ground with a thud. He had no choice but to use the gun, but now Kaio and Opunui knew that backup was here. They were nearly a mile from the main road, so someone from HPD must've heard it. The only hope was that they came to help sooner than later.

Steve pressed himself against the wood right next to the front doors, listening for any movement inside. If there had been commotion inside beforehand, it all stopped with the gunshot. Working on a plan that would involve the least amount of damage to him and potential damage for his team, he gently tugged up the hem of his t-shirt and glanced at the bandages covering the stitches. Seeing the spots of the red on the bandage, he knew that his stitches were not holding well under the fighting and all the moving was not the best thing for him, but he would have to work through it anyway.

Hand automatically moving to the pocket he had memorized, he flipped over the top and pulled out the flashbang. Grabbing the door handle, he turned it slowly and silently, opening the door just a crack, and threw in the flashbang. Steve slammed the door shut and counted the seconds, throwing open the door the second after he heard the small explosion.

A little bit of smoke filled the church entrance, but he spotted and small wooden wall, just off to the right. From what he could tell, two of those wooden walls were in the front entrance, holding what used to be pictures and welcoming papers. Behind those were lines of small and rotted pews, leading up to a raised altar. Just off to the left was a broken down box, the confessional booth. He saw figures on the stage near the altar, but he didn't get a clear enough look. Steve stood up behind the wooden beams, and he heard a voice from deeper inside the church.

"McGarrett, I know you're there. You better come out, or I'm putting a bullet in your partner's face right now." Steve didn't want to comply, but he also didn't want to be the reason Grace didn't have a father. With his back against the wood, there was a possible opening to his left that he could move down without being noticed. He just needed to get a glimpse of what was going on, then he could have a better plan. He didn't want to go in guns blazing, because it could be his team caught in the crossfire.

Steve started to move, but when he had taken out the flashbang, he had accidentally flipped open the cover for another one of his pockets, the pocket that had been holding his bottle of pills. In slow motion he watched it fall towards the ground, trying to grab at it while it was still in the air, but barely missing. The bottle of pills hit the old wooden floor with a plastic thud, the little white capsules rolling around inside making a sound like maracas. Steve knew his position was given away in that instance, and he only had seconds to act. Ignoring the fact that it would hurt, he threw himself to the floor, hitting the floor just as machine-gun fire let loose where he had just been standing. The bullets cut through the old wood like butter, and Steve could feel the wood splinters rain down on him. He threw his arms over his head, the bottle of pills gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for the onslaught to stop.

As soon as it did and there was a moment of silence, Steve did the next best thing. Use it as a distraction. Steve took the pills and chucked them to his right, where the other piece of wood stood as a barrier. If the gang was dumb enough, they would follow the sound and shoot over in the opposite direction, giving Steve the chance to get a better read. Luckily, the gang was exactly that dumb and the gunfire turned towards the other side of the church, giving Steve the chance to stand up and move to his left, the second hallway. Keeping his gun drawn, Steve scanned the building over the gunfire.

Around the steps of the stage, six of the remaining gang members let loose with their machine guns, aiming at anything and everything, none of it being Steve. For a moment, Steve saw Tama Isoua, the overthrown gang leader sitting in the pew, turned towards the stage. He was confused until Steve noticed the bullet hole in Isoua's face, and the unnatural slump the body had. He was dead, and it looked like he had been for a long time. Right in front of the worn-down altar, Chin, Kono, and Danny sat on their knees, hands tied behind their backs, gags in their mouths. On either side of the line of prisoners, Kaio and Opunui kept their own guns pointed at the Five-0 team, making sure there were no outbursts. Steve watched as his team stared at the front of the church in concern, thinking he was there getting shot at, but Steve's focus was one something different. Chin had blood running down the side of his face, while Kono's shoulder was jutted at an odd angle, and blood stained her thigh. Danny had blood from a cut on his lip and one over his eyebrow, but his face was all concern. Steve kept moving silently, the tug on his side painfully reminding him that those were the pain pills that he used as a distraction.

"McGarrett? You dead yet?" Opunui called out a beat after the shooting stopped. Playing on the ruse, Steve didn't answer, even though the reactions of his team made his heart skip a beat. Kaio started laughing, while Kono shook her head and pressed it into her good shoulder, while Chin stared blankly into the church, unbelieving. Danny's face morphed darkly, and while Steve knew exactly what Danny was going to do and tried to mentally stop him, it didn't work. While Kaio's back was turned, Danny pushed up off his knees and rammed into the Hawaiian man, trying to knock him off balance. But being in the kneeling position so long and Kaio being at least a head taller than Danny gave the hit little effect on the new gang leader, who just turned around angrily. Kaio called Danny a name that Steve couldn't hear and pistol-whipped the blonde man across the face, knocking him to the ground. Chin moved to stand up and help fight back, but Opunui moved in front of him, keeping the gun close to his face while Kaio finished with Danny.

"You think you're smart, huh?" Kaio shouted, grabbing Danny by the collar and dragging him back up so they were face to face. Kaio brought his own gun up and pressed it against Danny's forehead, shouting so much that spit flung into the detective's face. From the side, Steve's vision went red with rage, and he could feel his blood boiling. No one touches his team.

"McGarrett's dead! He's gone, you've got no one looking for you now. So there's nothing stopping me from putting a bullet in your-"

A gunshot cracked across the church, cutting Kaio off and Danny hit the floor, his hands useless to stop him. For a moment Danny thought Kaio actually did it, actually pulled the trigger and he was dead. Danny didn't feel dead, though. There wasn't any pain, but he could still hear the movement around him, he rolled over on his back and was face to face with Kaio, who was sprawled out on the floor with a round hole in the middle of his forehead. At that moment, there was only chaos. Danny got back on his stomach on the floor and he saw Chin go for Kono, pushing her towards the floor and using himself to help provide protection. Danny had trouble tracking the movement with the gunfire ringing out, but off in the corner he could've sworn he saw Steve, but that was impossible. Wasn't it?

What felt like hours but must've only been seconds, the gunfire stopped. Danny lifted up his head, and suddenly there were hands on his shoulders, lifting him back up. Then Steve was there, looking him in the face, a typical McGarrett-style grin on his face. Suddenly there was a knife and his hands were free, and Danny pulled the gag from his own mouth.

"Hey Danno," Steve said softly, gently placing a hand on Danny's shoulder. One second he was there, and the next he was gone. Danny rubbed his wrists and looked over, making sure it was real and this wasn't a trick. But there was Steve, cutting the ropes from Chin and Kono, before sitting down to help Kono with her shoulder. Danny stood up, legs a little shaky and gave Chin and hand upright as there was a loud crack and a moan. Danny flinched, reacting as if it had been another gunshot, but it was Steve putting Kono's shoulder back in place. It would be easier to move that way.

As the Five-0 team stood around on the stage, Danny looked at the bodies around them. All of the uprisings of the gang had been put down, with special shots in the forehead for Kaio and Opunui. As Danny moved from the bodies to Steve, his concern was not any less than before. Their fearless leader was swayed a bit-only just barely noticeable-before catching himself on a side table to keep himself upright.

"We've got HPD on the main street out here, and they've had to hear the gunshots by now. They should be here soon," Carefully, Steve tried to place his hand on his hip to act like he was being casual, but he could feel the blood coming from the wound. That gunfight did not do him any favors. If he hadn't ripped his stitches before they were long ripped now, and his knee burned up and down his left leg like never before. Pair that with the major concussion that the gunshots only worsened, Steve was having a hard time staying awake. Black danced at the corners of his vision, and gently he pulled his hand away from his side. To everyone else's surprise, it came back red with blood.

"Boss, what happened?" Kono asked, stepping forward to one side, while Danny moved to the other. There had been something off, Steve had been pretty pale when Danny saw him, and now it was even worse.

"Steven? You alright?" Danny asked a question he said too often for his own liking. The silence was not the answer he liked, but Steve just looked at all of them, eyebrows furrowed.

"'M fine. You guys… alright?"

"Steve, we're good," Chin stepped in, looking at his boss up and down. "What happened?" Steve shook his head, eyes dull and glazed over. Danny did not like where this was going.

"Good," Steve mumbled, eyes half shut now. "...safe." Right then Steve's eyes rolled back into his head, and Danny and Kono caught Steve right before he face planted on the ground. At the next moment, the doors burst open and HPD came running in with reinforcements, shocked to see the fight already done. Officers spread around the small abandoned building, calling in for radio back up and ambulances, clearing the rest of the space and checking the bodies. Danny was on his knees next to Steve, a worried Kono and Chin right next to him as an officer walked up. Officer Cassidy sighed when he saw the prone form of Steve laying on the ground, and the shake in Danny's fingers as he pressed them up against Steve's neck for a pulse. The second Danny's fingers made contact, Steve's eyes flew open and he coughed, surprising the rest of his team. Danny shifted his grip until his hand was around the back of Steve's neck, providing any support that he could. He watched as Steve's eyes roamed the building until they traveled over his team.

"You alright buddy?" Danny asked uncertainty, not pleased with the dulled reaction of his eyes and the blood that seemed to cover too many places.

"'M fine," Steve said automatically, pushing up on his elbows until his team helped him sit up. Chin dropped down behind the Five-0 leader to give him something to lean on for the moment, which Steve appreciated immensely. Cassidy looked down at Steve amused, shaking his head the whole time.

"Commander, what happened to 'I'll stay put'?" Cassidy asked, bringing half of a smile to Steve's face.

"Whoops?" There was no explanation, or at least not one Steve was willing to give at that moment. He was tired, he had his team, he just wanted to get back home.

"We've got an ambulance on its way, just stay put and we'll get you all some help," Cassidy continued, referring to the whole team. At the word ambulance, Chin could feel Steve immediately tense up, and they all knew what was coming.

"Cassidy, I just came from the hospital, I don't need to go again."

"You _what_-?"

"Danny, please," Steve sighed, knowing the rant that was coming and he was not in the mood to hear it.

"You were in the hospital? Why are you still not there? From what I can remember, you were quite literally thrown _through the window of the car_. Why are you even here? What doctor in their right mind would let you leave?"

"No one let me leave, I signed myself out. I couldn't sit there while you guys were still missing. Besides, the surgery was already done so it was just going to be me sitting in a bed, twiddling my thumbs while you guys were still sitting out here. So _I'm fine_. I don't need an ambulance, I don't need any hospitals. Right now I just want to get out of here and go lie down."

"Yeah," Kono agreed despite the glared looked Danny shot at her. "I'm ready to get out of here. Pretty much anywhere but here." Her body was sore, but nothing was unmanageable. Considering she and her cousin had gotten off pretty lucky. Steve had taken the brunt of the damage, and he was lucky to be alive. Chin nodded alongside her, and Steve made a pointed look at Danny.

"Please, Danno? Can we just get out of here? If something goes wrong I'll go back to the doctor, but I just want to go _home_." Cassidy and Danny looked at each other, each of them with the same thought, but also knowing that arguing would get them nowhere.

"Fine. Fine! We'll go. But if you die on our way out, I'm not going to be surprised. Maybe then you could finally understand what a _stupid_ idea this is." Danny gave in faster than Steve expected and the detective tried to ignore the smile that spread across Steve's face. "Cassidy, is there a car we can borrow? I don't want to leave you with all the work but…"

"I get it, Detective, don't worry about it. You can use mine. Just don't scratch it." Danny snorted loudly as Chin and Kono helped give Steve a hand up.

"With Steve around? You'll be lucky to get it back without bullet holes."

The walk from the police cruiser to the Five-0 office should've taken a couple of minutes max. Instead, the ordeal took what seemed like hours. Danny had made it adamant that _he_ was driving, and they were going to Iolani Palace because that was the next closest thing, and it was near the hospital, so they could still get that sense of home while help was only a few minutes away. Steve gave no protests and slumped over as soon as he sat in the passenger seat. The car ride was in silence, each of the Five-0 members using the last of their strength to stay awake. Danny had wanted to ask questions, ask Steve what had happened, but the man was out like a light. Danny could wait a little longer. Once they reached the front, Danny parked the car and moved Steve from the backseat, slinging Steve's arm over his shoulder to help him walk inside. The slow-moving crew made their way up the steps and into the office, nearly falling over from exhaustion.

Danny let Steve's arm slip from his shoulders so he could stand on his own, and Kono leaned up against the wood paneling with her eyes shut. In the comfort of their office and the familiarity, everyone was finally able to take a sigh of relief. Steve made a beeline for Danny's office, a confused Danny not too far behind.

"I'm going to go to sleep," Steve said bluntly, no working around anything. He swung open the door followed by Danny, and then by the two cousins who were drawn in anyway.

"So you use my couch?" Danny countered as soon as Steve started to mess around with the bottom.

"Yeah. Besides, yours is the only one that has this," Steve said, finding the right latches and pulling out the couch that turned into a bed. Lowering himself onto the bed, Steve grabbed one of the pillows from the side and stuck his head under it, eyes fluttering shut. He was out within seconds.

"Is this alright? Should we have taken him to the doctor?" Kono asked as the three Five-0 members watch their boss and partner lay on the pull out bed, beat up and worse for wear.

"If the stupid neanderthal really needed to go to the doctor, he wouldn't have fought back. He may be dumb, but he's not stupid. He's not going to put his health on the line like that. Besides, I think he was right. We all need some sleep. Then we can figure out what's next."

One by one, the rest of Five-0 found their way onto the couch-bed, one that was only meant to fit two people, maximum. But somehow, all four members of the Five-0 team fit on that bed in Danny's office. Danny was stuck in the middle, Steve on one side and Kono on the other. Kono was laid curled up with Danny's stretched out arm as a pillow, her back turned towards him. Chin was on the other side of Kono, using the armrest and sides for the most support. Steve laid on the opposite end of the couch, a pillow under his head and one arm stretched out over the back of the couch. Danny used Steve's chest as a pillow, and the lights soon faded out with the lack of movement. All together the office was silent except for the intake of breath and a quiet exhale, the Five-0 team just taking in _each other_. Too much had happened, and there were too many close calls.

A few minutes into it, when everyone else was already asleep, Steve's eyes opened and it took a second for him to remember where he was. Pieces clicked into place as his eyes roamed over his team, safe and sound. Everything turned out alright. They'd need some help soon, and he should probably go back to the doctor, but not yet. He was with his '_ohana_, and he wanted to stay that way. Besides, he'd do anything for his team.

"No one touches my 'ohana."


	6. Steve

**Ok, guys, I know there is no excuse for how long this took, so I'm very sorry. I would've had an excuse, but I just got wrapped up in life, and I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, so oh well. This one chapter alone took me at least a few weeks to write, and I just got it edited so now after I think 3 months (?) it's done. So again, sorry for the wait, but I hope it's worth it. This chapter has a ton of Steve whump, and one swear, so just FYI. **

**REVIEWS:**

**Texas fan: Here's the continue, just a while later...**

**Sarai: Thanks!**

**Alrighty guys, while this took forever, this is also the last chapter so with this the story ends. I think this has been one of my favorite stories I have written in a long time, this was literally a blast. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing this, and I'll definitely be back with more Hawaii Five-0 stories soon! I hope you enjoy and leave a review if you like it! I love reading them!**

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**Steve**

_**Broken by Lifehouse, and Family by TobyMac**_

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For the first time in years, Steve McGarrett woke up on his own. Not only did he wake up without an issue, he actually felt well-rested. No frantic phone call from Danny or Duke with a new case, no alarm going off for work, no sound of breaking glass in his house. It was just blissful silence. Steve laid in his bed, enjoying the peace and quiet for a while before he actually opened his eyes, glancing over at the clock on his table. A ripe seven o'clock in the morning. Normally his internal clock programmed by the Navy woke him up earlier than that, but for once he was able to truly sleep in. The last few weeks had been rough at work, so Steve gave everyone the weekend off. Duke was handling any of Five-0 calls, and he was told to only contact them if there was an emergency.

Danny had plans to take Grace up to the North Shore to practice surfing. They didn't quite get up that far, but they found a nice beach in Waikiki that Kono recommended. Mostly, Danny just wanted time to be with his daughter. Rachel had been on vacation with Stan on the mainland and they had taken Grace with them, so Danny wasn't able to see his daughter at all. They got back a few days ago, and Danny got Grace for the whole weekend. Steve marveled at the smile on Danny's face the entirety of Friday. Danny was truly happy around the office, barely snapping at Steve when he made a sarcastic remark and whistling as he went to refill coffees. Steve was beyond happy for his partner. Grace was his life, and the smile she brought out of the tough Jersey detective could light up an entire room. Steve didn't get to see enough of that Danny.

Kono had some friends coming in town from the Big Island and was going to hang out with them. It was all very secretive, but Steve knew they had been friends since middle school, so getting them to reveal their plans would be impossible. Knowing Kono and the time she spent in her office waxing her surfboard, meant a lot of sun and ocean. They _were _in Hawaii after all. As far as Steve knew, Chin didn't have many plans. He was looking forward to just taking the weekend and do some fixing up around his house, keeping everything nice and quiet. Chin Ho Kelly was a quiet and reserved man, he needed time to himself sometimes. And times like this was the perfect time to do it.

Like Chin, Steve kept his schedule open. He liked being organized and knowing what he was doing, but some days were meant to be spontaneous. He could do his daily run or swim and get ready, then maybe he'd hit the town, or go surfing. Steve hadn't gone surfing in a long time, there just wasn't time for it anymore. He knew if he waited too much longer he could get rusty. Kono could kick all of their butts easily, but Steve would become a laughing stock if Danny got better than him at it. That was something Steve couldn't afford.

Taking his time, Steve made his way out of his bedroom and down the stairs still dressed in his pajamas, plain sweatpants, and a white tank top. He stifled a yawn with his hand as he entered the kitchen, throwing a mug underneath the coffee maker to start some coffee. He leaned his back up against the counter as he waited for the coffee to get made, staring at this house around him. With all the action this house had seen, Steve was honestly surprised it was still standing. Not that he would ever change it.

His house was made of his childhood memories. Scratch that-his house _was_ his childhood. While his childhood wasn't perfect and he didn't always have the fondest memories of it, he couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of the house. A few new bullet holes in the walls was just another thing he could fix, there was no permanent damage. But selling the house would mean selling memories; the pencil lines drawn on the doorway of the kitchen of his and Mary's heights, the picture frames lining the living room of them as a happy family.

Steve's nostalgia was interrupted by his doorbell ringing, leaving him with another question. Why were people bothering him this early in the morning? He doubted that it was the cousins, they would have texted him saying they were swinging by. Danny was known for walking in whenever he wanted, but he wouldn't ring the doorbell. Steve left his coffee still brewing and walked to the front door, checking through the peephole in the door to see a delivery man standing on his porch. He had ordered some parts for the Marquis a while ago and had been waiting for them to show up. This must've been it. Steve opened the door and greeted the man with a smile.

"Hey, how ya doing." The question was open-ended, more as a formality rather than actually looking for an answer.

"Pretty good. Steven McGarrett?" The delivery man asked, keeping his head down and holding out a small box in his hand.

"That's me."

"Sign here please." Steve took the box and grabbed the little machine the delivery man held out, pausing right before he signed his name. He had ordered a few items in different packages, so he should've had more than one. He had checked the website a few days before, they were supposed to arrive on the same day.

"I think I'm missing a box. I'm supposed to have one more," Steve said, putting the pen down without signing. The delivery man didn't raise his head, just pulled out some notes and flipped through them.

"Oh, sorry you're right, my bad. I think I left it in the truck, I'll be right back."

"No worries," Steve promised and watched curiously as the squirrely little man turned back to the street. Steve glanced over his porch and into the street, nothing he couldn't see the mail truck anywhere. The trucks were typically pretty big, so it was odd not to be able to see it. Steve shut the front door behind him and walked out to his front driveway to get a better look out at the street. His gut told him something was off, and it was right. There were a few scattered cars at houses here and there, but definitely no delivery vans.

Steve spun around and sprinted back to his house, barely making it to his porch before being clotheslined and knocked to the ground. Ignoring the shortness of breath from the wind behind knocked out of him, Steve jumped up to fight his attacker. He couldn't get far when a muscular arm snaked its way around his neck and locked him in a chokehold, cutting off his air. Steve grabbed at the hands and pulled, trying everything to loosen the hold. He elbowed and kicked out at the attacker, but that only seemed to make the arms squeeze tighter.

Steve closed his eyes and tensed, hands clawing at the arms around his throat. Steve's attacker shifted his grip just enough to allow Steve to get a steady stance and kick his leg backward, taking out his attacker's knee. The attacker's grip loosened and Steve tore free, gasping for breath, but he didn't stop fighting. While the lack of oxygen made him lightheaded, Steve still whirled around fast enough to punch the man in the face and send him crashing to the ground.

Just as Steve turned back towards his door, another man jumped in front of his vision, punching him in the stomach, _hard_. Steve froze, arm instantly dropping down to wrap around his sore waist. _That didn't feel right_. Something about that punch was off, but Steve's oxygen-deprived brain couldn't form the right thoughts. Outnumbered and at a disadvantage shouldn't have been a problem for the former Navy SEAL, but Steve didn't get a chance to react before the hands were back around his throat. Steve choked as the hands squeezed tighter until his vision went black.

Definitely not for the first time, Steve woke up with a dull ache in his head. The ache turned more into a throbbing pain as he came more to awareness, senses starting to work again. His vision was fuzzy - blurry at best - and he couldn't figure out what was happening in front of him. Faceless blobs moved around his house, going through anything with a drawer and searching every corner. Numbly, he tugged at his arms and legs, barely getting a response. Somehow, he wasn't at all surprised. Steve let his cotton-stuffed head fall forward so he could get a better look. Tight nylon ropes from his garage tied his wrists and ankles to the legs of the chair. He continued to tug at them, seeing if he could get them loose or work them around enough for his hands to slide through. If his hands were tied together, he could use a few tricks to slide his hands out. But on opposite sides of the chair made all of them indefinitely harder.

Vision finally clearing up, Steve got a better chance to look himself over. Taking a mental note of the various pains: _neck, head, arms_, a particular splash of color caught his eye. The bottom left part of his undershirt was stained a shockingly bright red, slowing spreading to his sweatpants and dripping on the floor beside him. He watched each drop of blood hit the hardwood floor in an unending pattern. But Steve had jinxed himself the second he looked down. As soon as he caught sight of the life force slowly dripping out of his body, the pain hit him like a linebacker, kicking in suddenly and _excruciatingly_. If felt like a punch, vague memory bounced around in his head of fighting on his front lawn and getting hit with a punch to the gut. A punch. That's all it was. At least that's all he _thought _it was. Unless his attacker had super strength and could punch through human flesh, there was more to it than what meets the eye. Steve racked his muddled brain and came up with the most likely and rational conclusion: he got stabbed. Normally, he would've come up with a conclusion much faster than that, but he wasn't working at his best. All he did know, if he didn't that stab wound fixed up fast, things could go south very quickly.

Now that he was aware of the stab, it lit a fire up his torso and down his hip and as he tried to breathe through the pain, he noticed something similar about the wound. It was almost in the exact place Victor Hesse had shanked him while he was in lockup. He couldn't believe his rotten luck. Out of all things, all places, _today, _people decided to try and ruin his life. To add to that, he didn't know his attackers or even why they decided to terrorize him.

Steve lifted his head back up after cataloging injuries and tried to get an accurate count of the situation. It was a very slow process, but it was better than nothing. Four men were making a mess of his home, throwing down kitchenware and photographs, tearing into furniture and throwing papers around his office. One of the men-tall, burly and arms the size of tree trunks, the same man who Steve guess knocked him out-was pulling plates out of the cabinets and throwing them so they shattered on the ground. While the other men were obviously searching for something, but there was no practical value to throwing the dishes. As far as Steve knew, he was just doing it for the fun of it.

"Hey!" Steve let out a sharp whistle and grabbed the man's attention. No one else moved, but the man breaking the plates looked up at his prisoner. "Yeah, you. What are you doing?"

The muscular man froze, the plate he was about to break gripped tightly in his hand. Changing gears, he started to walk towards Steve, neither men breaking the eye contact they held. The man stepped over broken cabinet doors and pieces of wood before he stopped just in front of McGarrett. They entered a tense stare off, neither man blinking while they waited for the other to give in first. After a silent minute of staring, the thug - which Steve nicknamed 'Burly' for his arms - blinked first.

Steve let a smug smile cross his face. A voice that sounded an awful lot like Danny told him that angering the man was probably not the best idea, but he ignored it, like always. However satisfying the smile was, however, it didn't last very long. Burly's face turned into a scowl and he growled at Steve, swinging his arm back. With his arms tied to the chair, Steve couldn't protect his face from Burly smashing the ceramic plate across his face.

The plate shattered as Steve's head snapped to the side, the shards digging into his skin and drawing more blood. Steve hung awkwardly off the side of the chair, head pounding and the stab wound in his stomach stretching painfully. Taking a few deep breaths, he tried to manage the pain before righting himself. He could feel pieces of the plate in his skin, and he could feel the sting of blood down his left cheek. Steve blinked and when they opened again, Burly was kneeling in front of Steve, their faces mere inches apart.

"Shut. Up."

The two words were heavily accented, but Steve got the message. He nodded dumbly and Burly continued to stare at Steve, trying to see if he really meant it. Satisfied, Burly turned his back and walked back to the kitchen, intent on destroying more plates. As soon as Steve knew no one was watching him, Steve tightened his grip on the broken piece of the plate he had grabbed when it shattered. Steve hadn't been expecting Burly to break the plate over his head, but he was adaptable. No one else seemed to give Steve the time of day, so he started sawing at the rope at his wrist. If he could just get one hand free, he could get out of the chair and be in a much better situation. Unfortunately, his placement just off to the left of the front window kept him out of sight from anyone looking in, but being up against the wall kept his movements out of sight. As long as they just keep searching for whatever they were looking for, Steve could get out of his bonds and fight them out.

As if his captors read his mind, they suddenly changed their tactics completely. Instead of searching around the house and destroying property, Burly went through and closed all the curtains to the windows, double-checking all the doors were locked. All the lights were turned off, but the afternoon sun shone bright and allowed plenty of light in through the lanai doors. There was nothing big enough to block that view, so it remained clear. Another thug, a thin mousy guy with wire-rimmed glasses as big as his face walked out the front door and came back carefully holding a thick black backpack. As soon as he was back inside, the third man did one final sweep outside before locking it.

With each cut in the rope Steve made, the sharp edges of the plate sliced his hand open, blood freely dripping down his fingers. At this point, Steve barely even noticed. All the pain had dulled down to a buzzing ache. It was good for his concentration, but not good for his health. The adrenaline was keeping him going, but if he didn't do anything for the knife wound soon, he would bleed out very fast. The stain on his tank top and the hem of his sweatpants was growing at an unsettling pace, but he couldn't do anything about it until he got his hands free.

With a satisfying snap, the plate cut through the rope holding his right hand to the leg of the chair. With his captors' backs turned towards him, Steve allowed himself a slow smile.

Tai adjusted his wire glasses and set to work on the Commander's kitchen table, pulling out wire and putty, followed by carefully handled blocks of c4 and an intricate-looking box. Traveling in the van with a backpack full of explosives was risky, but they had a smooth ride all the way through. Tai was the only one who knew how to properly set up the explosives, otherwise, he wouldn't be there at all. He should've been at his son's football game, but his boss had called him up with a mission, and his boss was not someone you refuse.

Jiahao, their leader on this mission, had been given specific instructions from their boss on how their target should be handled. Steve McGarrett was resilient, cunning, and resourceful. They were told not to turn their backs for even a minute. But when Tai had caught sight of the infamous Steve McGarrett helplessly stuck in the chair with a stab wound, he didn't look all that special. But who was he to question his boss? He had his instructions, he was to follow them and hopefully make it back in time for the last bit of his son's game.

Tai hummed to himself as he carefully connected wires to the bricks, making sure the connections were good and they weren't going to explode before they were supposed to. He heard a quiet grunt and looked up suddenly, cutting off his hum mid-song. Besides himself and Jiahao, two muscle men were brought along to make sure McGarrett cooperated, Li and Zhong. He didn't think they used their real names, but in his line of work, rarely did anyone use their actual names. Even he didn't, it was all just precaution. But as Tai looked around, his eyes focused on the empty kitchen chair that McGarrett had previously been tied to. The ropes hung loosely off the side, and Tai pulled the gun out of his waistband. Jiahao had been upstairs when Tai started to work with Li and Zhou downstairs with him. Zhou was now nowhere to be found.

"_Jiahao, McGarrett's out!"_ Tai shouted in Mandarin, keeping his gun out in front of him and holding position in the kitchen. He heard the footsteps of Jiahao sprinting down the steps and watched as their leader pulled out his own gun. Li stepped out from behind the staircase as well, every gun pointed towards the office area. Sounds of a struggle ensued until a loud snap was heard and a body hit the floor. Silently, Tai hoped that it was McGarrett that made the concerning noises, but part of him knew that wasn't true. Above all, their most important instructions were made abundantly clear: _Do not kill McGarrett_. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted, but they were not supposed to kill him. That's what the bombs were for. And if that plan worked well enough, their boss hoped to take out the entire Five-0 team in one fell swoop.

All three men caught movement from the opening of the office and opened fire, hitting the body that fell out of the doorway. The shooting stopped when the man on the ground was not Steve McGarrett, but Zhou, neck snapped and his body full of bullet holes. He was dead before the shooting had even started.

"_Boss, cover me,"_ Li whispered to Jiahou, and slowly made his way towards the opening to the office. Li took a long way, crossing Jiahou and Tai and pressed his back up against the wall, slowly inching his way towards the opening for the office. Tai watched nervously as Li took a deep breath, before swinging his body and his gun around the corner.

McGarrett knew his element of surprise would only last so long, he was just glad he had been able to take the man count down by one. Once his first hand from free, it was only a matter of seconds before he got the rest of his limbs out. The guards were barely paying attention to him, so it was easier to move undetected. At least now he had names to put to faces. Mandarin was one of the few languages Steve was fluent in, so understanding their conversations had been a breeze. However, he kept his face neutral in front of them, keeping up the ruse that their private conversations really were private.

When McGarrett had taken down the one man, Zhou, he was painfully reminded that he was not at 100%. His stomach had stretched the stab wound, doubling the blood flow and the pain. As soon as he pushed Zhou's body out of the office and heard the gunfire, he had grabbed a rag he spotted in the corner and knew it was his best shot of keeping the blood flow under control. Steve bit the inside as he forced the rag as far as he could into the wound and under his tank top, leaving him breathless and blood in his mouth once it was done. It wasn't the best, and the rag certainly wasn't clean, but packing the wound would keep the blood from leaking too fast.

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve caught movement and ducked down behind his father's desk as Li opened fire at him. Steve felt the bullets whiz inches above his head, and he knew there were only a few more seconds for his plan to work. Sliding open the bottom desk drawer, Steve felt around the top of the drawer for the phone taped to it. It was his emergency stash, incase his regular phones were ever compromised and he needed a clean one. He had a few numbers programmed in speed dial, only essential personnel. Just as the shooting stopped, Steve hit the first number on the speed dial list, praying that they picked up. Steve listened to the footsteps of the hired muscle as he walked closer to Steve's hiding place and he was out of time. He threw the phone underneath the desk, watching it skid into the shadows, out of sight.

With the phone effectively 'hidden', Steve kicked out his leg as soon as the footsteps got close enough, catching Li in the shins. This bought enough time for Steve to roll away into the open area of the office - only to lift his head and stare straight into the barrel of Jiahao's gun. Unable to move any more without his head being blown off his shoulders, Steve leaned back on his elbows, giving his burning stomach a break. Jiahao stood over Steve with a burning fury in his eyes, finger centimeters from pulling the trigger. Steve stared defiantly back up at him, daring the man to shoot him. Jiahao's face twisted up in a scowl as he battled with himself, ultimately giving up and shoving the gun back in the waistband of his pants. If it were up to him, McGarrett would've been dead long ago. But it wasn't, and he'd rather not cross his boss.

"_Get him back up_," Jiaho growled to Li, who hauled Steve up not so gracefully to a somewhat standing position. Steve didn't fight back, but he didn't help either. It wasn't like he had a choice. He had increased his chances by packing the wound, but that only aggravated it further. With every step, he was forced to take his side lit up in pain and he bit down to keep from making a noise. He was a SEAL, but even they could only take so much. He hadn't reached that point yet, but without a permanent fix for the bleeding, it would happen a lot faster. If help didn't come soon, there would be no way he could survive.

* * *

Danny was having the time of his life. He was barely in the water himself, just enough to get his knees wet, but he was just loved watching Gracie. He had bought some surfing lessons for her to take as soon as she had picked up the interest, knowing he wouldn't be able to give enough information on his own for his curious daughter. He had been getting lessons from Kono himself so he could understand the basics, but it was a slow-going process for the native Jersey boy. Currently, he just enjoyed watching his daughter absolutely shred the waves, even though they were shorter than Gracie herself. Danny pulled his phone out of his pocket and clicked the camera button, starting to video as Grace rode on one of the biggest waves yet.

Danny cheered loudly as he let the camera capture the moment, from the shaky beginning to Grace expertly cutting through the clear water and riding over the crest of the wave. Suddenly, the video cut out as Danny got a call from an unknown number. Danny swore softly and ended the call without opening it to restart the video before Grace finished her wave. Whoever was calling could wait. He had his daughter for the whole weekend, and his attention was fully on her.

* * *

Even though Steve perfectly understood what his captors were saying, he continued to act like he didn't understand anything. He didn't know these people, he had never seen them before. If he was lucky, they didn't know much about him and gave him another advantage. But rarely was Steve ever actually that lucky. So every time Jiahao directed a question towards Steve in Mandarian, he shook his head and continued to admit that he didn't know what they were saying.

Now, Steve's captors took a few more precautions when he was pushed into the chair. They replaced the ropes Steve had so easily cut through with zip ties to his wrists and ankles. He already had a mild case of rope burn from the previous ties, but the zip ties were pulled tight until the harsh material bit into his skin and drew blood. Within minutes Steve felt his hands lose feeling. Jiahao stood in front of Steve the entire time, watching closely for a response. Steve kept his face set and eyes focused, ignoring how the zip ties dug into his skin with each tug. As long as he stayed silent, he would win.

Once all the zip ties were set, and Steve was pretty sure he could slip out from all of them from how much blood had slickened them up, Jiahao shot a nasty grin at the former SEAL. Li walked back into the kitchen and came back with a roll of duct tape, the same evil smile photocopied on his face. Steve's stomach dropped at the sudden seriousness of the situation. Li bent down and wrapped duct tape around the zip ties several times, reinforcing the material. Steve flexed his arms and tried to see if there was any room for him to move around, but that only caused the zip ties to dig in further. He was truly stuck. That's when the beating started.

Steve was sure he had struck a chord when he had killed the one muscles because Li was beating him like it was the end of the world. Punch after punch came, and the second a break came - one Steve desperately needed - another punch came out of the blue. Li held nothing back, taking his time to make sure he had thoroughly gone through Steve's face before focusing on his torso. It hadn't been too bad for Steve's standards (he'd had worse before) until one punch hit directly on the stab wound and Steve couldn't help but cry out. That had brought a laugh from Li and a momentary pause in the beatings. Steve leaned forward as far as his bonds would let him, coughing and blood dripping from his mouth. Steve tensed and waited for the next punch, but it never came. He righted himself back in the chair and breathed heavily as Jiahao paced in front of Steve.

"_We know you can understand us, McGarrett, so I would listen up,"_ Jiahao was getting frustrated at the general noncompliance from their prisoner, and they were running out of time. Tai had given him a heads up that the main bomb was a few minutes away from being done, then they could wire the rest of the house and get out before it blew.

Steve shook his head and pretended to act confused, something Jiahao could easily see-through. While Jiahao was inclined to believe that the Commander was a skilled liar, the obvious blood loss was making the fabrications even more pitiful.

"_Are you not interested in who sent us here?" _Whether it was the blood induced haze or just basic curiosity, Steve froze, giving Jiahao all the information that he needed. "_Thank you, Commander. It will all be easier now."_ Steve didn't like giving in so easily, but he couldn't deny that he wanted to know who these people were, or who they worked for. He liked to know who was after him, so he could find them after.

"Fine. I'll bite. Who's your boss?"

"_I believe you know him very well. He has been waiting a long time for this opportunity. He believes now is a perfect time."_ Poison laced Jiahao's words and smile as he met the eyes of McGarrett, dropping to his knees so they could get on the same level.

"_Wo Fat wants to send a message."_

* * *

"I'm so proud of you, kid, you know that, huh?" Danny praised his daughter, pulling her close as she wrapped the towel around her shoulders and laughed

"I know, Danno."

"You know? Huh? That's what you know? I see how it is," Danny teased, poking Grace lightly between the ribs, bringing out the best sound in the world. Danny carried Grace's surfboard under his other arm as Grace continued to giggle, smile brighter than the Hawaiian sun shining above them. Nothing could bring him out of this picture-perfect moment.

Until something did. He remembered the strange phone call he had gotten about ten minutes before. Danny doubted he would've even remembered it in the first place if it hadn't been nagging at him after Grace finished surfing. He had pushed it to the side to finish filming Grace on the wave and had forgotten about it until now. But now it ate at him from the inside of his stomach, and he felt almost physically sick.

"Hey, Grace, how about you run and stick your board in the car, Danno's gotta make a phone call real quick, okay?" Danny forced his words to come out even, trying not to concern her but letting her know that this was a private phone call.

"Okay!" Beautiful, innocent, obedient Grace nodded happily as she grabbed the board and sprinted to the car to get it all ready. Danny let himself have a small smile. He really didn't deserve her. He lived for her, everything he did was for her. But right then, something in his gut told him that something drastic had happened. He didn't want to ruin the afternoon, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

Pulling out his phone, Danny looked at the notification with the number that had called him. He studied it, failing to recognize it. It was in their area code, so it was local, but after racking his brain, Danny still couldn't guess who it could be. He only had a few programmed numbers from people in Hawaii, and he knew all of them. Next to it, the notification for voicemail glared up at him, and Danny's finger hovered over the button. He didn't know why he was hesitant, but the bad feeling he had was growing larger and larger in his stomach. Shaking his head, Danny tried to shake off the bad feelings and listened to the voicemail.

The first thing he heard was a man speaking in Chinese, and that alone made him almost end the call. He didn't understand a lick of what the man was saying, and his first guess was just a spam call. Just something silly he had gotten worked up over for no reason. But by some act of God, Danny decided to listen for a few more seconds, and it flipped his world upside down. In the middle of the Chinese tirade, he heard one word, loud and clear. Everything around him drowned out as he unmistakenly heard that one name.

"..._McGarrett..._" Now the pit in his stomach made sense. There weren't too many McGarrett's in Hawaii, and it was too much of a coincidence to think that it wasn't Steve. Danny jammed his finger in his exposed ear to block out any other noises so he could focus on the voice. This wasn't just a spam call. A few seconds more of the Chinese, there was a beat of silence, before a voice came on that Danny was both relieved and dreaded to hear.

"_Fine. I'll bite. Who's your boss?"_ Danny's heart dropped to his stomach as he heard his partner talk. It wasn't the strong, confident former SEAL that Danny knew. This voice was Steve McGarrett's no doubt, but this was different. While the words had all the tang and sarcasm that Steve relied on, the words had almost no sting to them. His voice was cracked and raspy, and if Danny didn't know his partner any better, he would've guessed that there was a hint of pain laced into the few simple words. There was more silence that followed, and Danny swore his heart stopped beating. More Chinese followed, but he was able to catch the final two words as the voicemail ended.

"_Wo Fat."_ Frozen in his stupor, Danny forgot how to act. He forgot how to breathe, how to think, how to _exist_. Wo Fat was back. And he had Steve. The same man that had literally tortured Steve over who Shelbourne was, only for Danny and the rest of Five-0 to find him half-dead tied up in the back of the truck. The same man who had tried to kill Steve on too many occasions to count. The same man that had made Steve's life a living nightmare for the last four years.

As soon as Danny remembered he could move, that he _had_ to move, Danny sprinted back to the Camaro, throwing open the door, and speeding off before he even shut the door. Grace let out a surprised shriek as she was thrown against her seat, thankfully already buckled.

"_Danno!"_

"Sorry, monkey, there's an emergency." Danny didn't really know how else to explain how the man they had been hunting for years was back, and quite possibly facing off with Steve at that moment. Danny didn't want to think about the consequences of that, especially since Steve didn't have him there as a backup. Danny should've been there, watching his six as a partner should.

Grace was silent for a few moments before looking up at her dad, brown eyes wide with concern. "Is Uncle Steve ok?" Danny opened and shut his mouth without making any noise, tearing his eyes away from the road just for a second to stare at his daughter in disbelief.

"What?" Grace looked up at her father with a small smile, knowing the surprise she had just given him.

"You get a funny face when you're with Uncle Steve. You just made that face. And I've never seen you move this fast. Is he okay?" Danny couldn't deny that he was surprised that his daughter caught on so quickly. _Was he really that easy to read?_ Danny tried his best to keep most of his work and family separate, Steve and the Five-0 team being the exception. If Grace had seen through him so easily now, he wondered how often she picked up when there was a rough day of work. She never mentioned it, but Danny guessed something was up when he came home to a weekend from a long week and she gave extra tight hugs.

"I don't know," Danny sighed, knowing that she would see through any lies. "That's what I'm going to check. So I'm gonna drop you off at your mom's house, okay? Then, when we're done, I'll get Uncle Steve and we'll all go surfing. Sound good?"

"Ok, Danno! Does Uncle Steve know how to surf?" As Danny turned on the lights for his Camaro and blew past regular cars, he was somewhat grateful for the distracting question. It kept his mind off the terrible scenarios that he was imagining Steve in, and the guilt weighing down on him for not being there with his partner. Danny forced a smile at his daughter and spoke with a teasing tone.

"Does Uncle Steve know how to surf? Of course, he knows how to surf! He's a fish, I bet he could even _breathe_ underwater. Remember, he's a SEAL."

"Super SEAL!" Grace shouted enthusiastically, pumping her fist in the air as she remembered the nickname the Five-0 team had given the former Navy SEAL.

"Yeah, you're right monkey, Super SEAL." Danny's voice trailed off in the end, and Grace knew that was it for that conversation. Only a few minutes later Danny sped up the driveway of Rachel's house, putting the car in park and turning towards his daughter.

"I'll call you when I'm done, okay? We'll get Steve and find a day to go surfing, alright? I love you," Danny had rolled the window down so he could talk to his daughter through the car door. She leaned inside and smiled at him, giving him her best smile. Maybe that would help him feel better.

"Love you too, Danno." With that, Grace stepped away from the window and Danny stepped on the gas, backing out of the driveway and speeding off to Steve's house. Danny kept his phone in one hand, weighing his options. He was about ten minutes away, but at his speed, he would be there in about five. With the police siren wailing, regular cars on the road turned out of his way just before Danny blew by them. If Steve had been there, seeing Danny drive he would've laughed. Danny was driving exactly how Steve did, and the irony of the situation only made Danny's anxiety worse. Going against his better judgment, Danny hit the call back button on the phone Steve had called him from, praying that his partner picked up the phone.

* * *

Steve tried to hide the shock at hearing Wo Fat's name, but at the same time, he wasn't surprised at all. Over the years Steve had killed or put away plenty of really bad people, but no one had come back with as much retaliation as Wo Fat had. But just because Steve wasn't surprised at learning the leader of this operation, it didn't calm his nerves either. Steve just prayed that Danny had answered the phone and heard all they were talking about.

Steve heard Jiahao talking to him, but he wasn't paying attention. He had lost track after they said Wo Fat. The man obviously wasn't here himself, so he wasn't willing to do the dirty work. That was unusual. When it came to Steve, Wo Fat was almost always personal about it. It didn't make sense for him to send a bunch of thugs to go after Steve. Whatever method Wo Fat had to his madness, Steve was having a hard time understanding it.

At that point, Steve was having a hard time understanding _anything_. While the rag he had shoved into the stab wound had helped in the beginning, the whole rag was now stained entirely red and continued to stain his shirt. Steve was running out of time, fast, and he knew it. He could feel his heart racing, pounding in his chest and in his head. Each breath seemed shorter than the last and he couldn't seem to get enough to satisfy his aching lungs. Blood loss was reaching dangerous levels now, and fatigue setting in was a good indicator. Steve continuously pulled at his wrists and legs trying to get them free from the zip-tie and duct-tape combination, but there was no luck.

A punch to his face caught him completely by surprise. A voice in the back of his head yelled at him for not paying attention, not knowing his surroundings. As a SEAL, he was supposed to know what was going on around him at all times. Being observant saved lives, oftentimes even his own. But the punch was followed by a second, and a third, and a fourth. More blood filled Steve's mouth and there was a moment without violence when he was able to leave over and spit out blood. It matched the previous pile he had spit out, almost identically. His entire body was a bruise, but besides the stab wound, his face was getting the brunt of the damage. Steve ran his tongue around his mouth, making sure everything was still in place. He didn't have any loose teeth and nothing felt broken, but a few more hits to the face and he would have a few more issues than just a few bruises.

In a moment of silence that passed, that _unfortunate _silence, the clear sound of a phone vibrating echoed throughout the silent house. Li tightened his grip on his gun, and Tai's head snapped up. All heads turned to the office, where the phone continued to vibrate. Steve sighed and let his head drop down to his chest. He had hoped the call to Danny went through, but obviously it hadn't. Having missed the call, Danny tried to call back and practically signed Steve's death warrant.

Jiahao disappeared in the office and returned in front of Steve with the phone on the speaker. Steve managed to raise his head enough to look Jiahao in the eye as he answered the phone.

"Hello, Detective Williams," Jiahao spoke deliberatively with practiced English, not breaking eye contact with Steve.

"_Where's Steve? Put him on the phone."_ Steve sighed at the sound of Danny's voice, relieved and scared for his partner all at the same time. Too many times Danny had been forced to hear devastating news over the phone, half of them about Steve. Steve knew how much stress it caused Danny, and he knew how worried the Jersey man got. But Steve couldn't tell if it was just the blood loss, but it sure sounded like Danny's voice shook over the phone. Without giving Jiahao a chance to talk over him, Steve got the first words out, trying to reassure his partner.

"I'm here Danny, I'm fine." Steve knew the consequences for speaking, but he was ready for them anyway. He could hear the roar of the Camaro, so he knew Danny was on his way. That was good.

Steve expected a punch, maybe another extended beating. He never expected the loud crack to follow a punch to the face and the exploding pain in his jaw. Steve couldn't help but let out a low moan as he pulled against his bonds, breathing heavily through his nose. For a moment everything was drowned out and he couldn't hear anything except for his own ragged breathing. White flashed his vision and he squeezed his eyes shut to try and push back the pain. That was new. And definitely _not _good.

"_What was that?"_ Danny shouted, his voice in full panic mode now. The crack was disturbingly familiar, and the silence from Steve afterward wasn't comforting. He pushed the gas down to the floor and shot another text to Chin and Kono. He had sent one almost immediately after he got the news from the voicemail, and they were moving as fast as they could. Danny was only a couple of minutes out. _Steve will be fine,_ he told himself. _He has to be. I won't let him not be._ But the laugh that came over the line did nothing to reassure Danny.

"I believe that was my associate breaking the Commander's jaw. Forgive me if there is no more communication from the Commander, it seems that he may have a hard time speaking." As much as he hated to, Steve had to agree with Jiahao. With waves of pain radiating off his jaw and the inability to move his jaw, Steve could tell that it was off by a few degrees. Nothing doctors couldn't fix, but until then it would be hard to form words.

"Now, I'm afraid we do have to leave, Detective, we're not quite done with McGarrett yet." Before Danny could protest, Jiahao raised his gun and pulled the trigger, ending the phone call right as a gunshot echoed and Steve let out a muffled scream.

Danny could only stare at the ended phone call in shock and anger, immediately calling back. The phone didn't even ring, he was sent directly to voicemail. Frustrated, Danny threw his phone at the floor of the Camaro and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He was only three minutes away, but he couldn't get Steve's scream out of his head. He should never have even been there alone. Danny should've invited him out to go surfing with Grace, something to get him out of the house and with him so he could watch his partner's back. His bullet and danger magnet of a partner. Not racing to his house hoping to find Steve alive and not dead in a pool of blood.

Danny was still lost in his thoughts as he pulled up in front of Steve's house and leaped out of the car, gun drawn. His phone was still sitting at the bottom of the Camaro and Danny didn't notice the text from Chin saying he and Kono were only a few minutes behind. Danny checked the windows around the still McGarrett house, looking for any obvious threat. Without finding any, Danny sprinted up the steps to the front door, pressing his back against the wall.

"Steve, you in there?" Danny thought he heard an answer, but he couldn't determine quite what the noise was. So Danny crouched beside the door handle, turning it slowly to push in the door. Then his guess was confirmed, he _was _hearing noises from inside. But they weren't happy ones.

"_Nuh-uh! Nuh-uh!_" The voice was strained so it sounded more like moans instead of words, but it was enough to make Danny stop. When Danny looked through the crack he had made with the door, he spied a thin piece of wire that stretched across the gap, almost to the point of breaking. Danny held his breath and gently closed the door, only letting out his breath when the door shut without an explosion following behind it. That was close. Too close. Danny knew he needed to calm down and pay attention to what he was doing. If he acted too irrationally, he could cost both of their lives.

Danny figured if the front door was wired, it was a safe assumption that all the other doors were. But that didn't stop him from going around the gate and making it into the backyard, moving as close to the lanai doors as he dared. He spotted the wire easily this time, running along the edges on the inside and wrapped around the handle. If Steve hadn't stopped him at the front, Danny would've blown both of them up to pieces without ever knowing any better.

Raising his hands over his eyes to shadow the sun enough to look through the glass doors, what Danny saw made him want to puke, knees going weak. Steve sat - more like _slumped_ \- in one of his kitchen chairs, arms, and legs duct-taped to the legs of the chair. Danny knew he needed to stop staring and continue looking for an entrance, but once he looked he couldn't stop. He saw the gag tied tightly in McGarrett's mouth, causing obvious discomfort with the broken jaw. As if that wasn't enough, Danny spotted the blood next. Oh God, the blood. Danny couldn't see anyplace on Steve that _wasn't _covered in blood. It stained skin around a gash that ran halfway down his face. It was dripping out of his nose, the corner of his mouth. It dripped from bloody fingertips and open cuts in his palm. It stained almost the entirety of his formerly white tank top and a rag that hung loosely from underneath it. It bled freely from a fresh gunshot wound right above his knee.

Danny put the back of his hand over his mouth to weakly stop the flow of vomit that fought its way up to his throat. He just barely swallowed it back down when Steve numbly raised his head and caught Danny's eye through the window. Danny wasn't sure because of the gag, but he could've sworn that Steve smiled.

"Hang on buddy, just hang on. I'm coming, hang on." Danny knew Steve couldn't hear him through the door, but he said it anyway. He needed some reassurance that his partner was just going to _hold on_.

Danny paced in the backyard, trying to think of anything that would work to get him inside the house. Vaguely Danny remembered that Steve had a window in his room, and he ran around to that side of the house. He hated leaving Steve alone, but he knew it would be better for everyone if he was inside that house. Staring up at the second-story window, he was taking a big risk. It was up there, way up there. He also wasn't sure that Wo Fat didn't wire that window too, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

As soon as his decision was made, Danny was a kid again, studying a tree to find the best place to climb up. Danny scanned the side of the house and found the route that would work best. Sliding the gun back in his holster, he used the wood beams of the fence to get about halfway up the height of the first floor. Luckily, Danny was a fairly small man and was able to jump from the fence and swing in the gutter to hit the roof right under the window. Unfortunately, his landing was not as smooth as he originally planned, as he moved through the air the gutter ripped out from his holding, sending him flying the last few feet. Danny rolled his ankle as he hit the rooftop, but grabbed hold of the side of the house in time to keep from falling off.

Danny bit the inside of his cheek at the roll, but he ignored his throbbing ankle to slide his pocket knife out of his back pocket and jimmied the lock on the window. Before moving Danny checked for any wires around the frame. Satisfied there were none, he slid up the window and rolled inside.

Steve's bedroom was as neat as Danny had seen last time, nearly no signs of a struggle. The covers were pulled up and straightened on his bed, old clothes thrown in a laundry basket instead of strewn randomly on the floor. Picture frames were upright, nothing seemed out of place. But Danny checked it anyway, making sure nobody from Wo Fat's crew was sticking around to finish the job. Satisfied the upstairs was clear, Danny made his way to the top of the stairs, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what he would see downstairs.

Whatever Danny tried to do to mentally prepare himself didn't work. Danny couldn't stop the second wave of nausea that plagued him as he saw his partner, silently tied to the chair, eyes wearily looking up to meet Danny's. It took everything inside of Danny to keep from immediately running to his partner. The outside of the house was wired. People had broken their way inside. Danny had to make sure they were alone and not about to blow up before he could help Steve.

"Hang on, buddy, ok? Hang on," Danny said, regretfully turning his back on his partner to clear the kitchen. Danny said those words over and over again, all up until he decided that the house was empty. What was a little more concerning, however, was the metal he spotted directly through the window of the backdoor. In his excitement to get to the window, Danny had completely missed the heavy metal container that sat right outside the door, the source of all the wires. Danny sighed, somewhat in relief and concern. So the bomb was outside. That meant he didn't have to deal with it inside the house. But that also meant Steve wasn't able to get the help he needed until they disarmed the bomb, and only God knows how long that would take.

"Ok, I'm coming, man," Danny said, mostly to himself as he holstered his gun and jogged back to McGarrett.

"Hey there. I'm here." Danny knew Steve couldn't answer, the gag in his mouth paired with the obviously broken jaw, he wouldn't be saying anything for a while. This time, as Danny crouched slightly to get eye to eye with Steve, Danny _did _see half of a smile on his face. No matter how anxious he was, Danny returned the half-smile, knowing that only Steve would be smiling after the torture he got.

"I know you must be overjoyed to see me…" Danny joked, possibly the only thing keeping him sane right then. He tried not to look and the pool of blood that stained the floor, splatters of it on the wall, and the trail that led into the office. The first thing he did was press his hand up against the blood on Steve's stomach, not knowing exactly what was causing it. Steve groaned and Danny barely got a chance to finish his joke as he noticed movement from Steve.

"Steve, what are you doing?" Where Steve had seemed pretty aware of his situation when Danny had been at the top of the stairs, it was the complete opposite of now. Steve's eyes were glazed over and unfocused, and his head tipped forward, chin painfully hitting his chest. But Steve didn't even react.

"Hey. Steve?"

Steve vaguely heard Danny calling his name, but everything sounded like it was underwater. It seemed like Danny had cracked a joke earlier, but Steve couldn't understand it. He had been holding on as long as he could, holding on until Danny showed up. That's all he had to do, wait until Danny showed up. So when Steve saw Danny at the top of the stairs, he couldn't help but smile. It was all good now. He was safe. Danny was here, so it would all be alright. With that in mind, Steve blinked and felt himself slipping.

"_Hey_! No, no, no, n-_no_…" Danny saw this lax in Steve's features and his heart leapt to his throat. Danny gently grabbed the less bruised side of Steve's head, bringing it back up into focus. That god-awful McGarrett smile was still on his face as Steve's eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Hey! Steven! You aren't allowed to fall asleep on me, alright? I didn't come all this way for you to take a nap, okay?" Danny continued to keep Steve's head mostly upright and tapped on his cheek, trying to wake the unconscious man. Normally, Danny would've slapped him silly, but he didn't want to aggravate the broken jaw any more than it was. At that moment, Danny spotted the deep purple bruises around Steve's neck, just noticeable under the blood. Just another thing to make Danny's stomach twist into knots. Danny knew the most important thing was keeping Steve awake until the EMTs showed up, but being tied to the chair was not doing Steve any favors. Danny was torn as his gaze switched from Steve's relaxed and bloody face and the duct tape keeping him to the chair.

"Fine. _Fine._ You win. I'll let you sleep for five minutes, as I get you out of this chair, alright? But after that, you're up. No matter what." Danny rambled, knowing he was still talking to himself, but it was better than a silent house. Danny took one last look at Steve's unconscious form before shaking his head and getting back to work. He didn't like this. He didn't like this one bit. As Danny reached in his pocket to pull out his pocket knife, his hands shook so much he actually dropped his knife on the first attempt to open it.

"Look. Do you see what you made me do, Steven? I dropped my knife. _God_, Steve when you wake up, I'm gonna…" As Danny starting to carefully cut the duct tape from Steve's hands, he didn't know how he was going to finish his sentence. "Actually, I don't know what I'm going to do. We'll get there when we get there. But now I'm going to cut these off, alright? I'll be careful, but I mean… you aren't feeling anything right now anyway."

Danny hated the silence he was getting in return. Even if Steve was awake, Danny still wouldn't be getting any answers. Danny knew he was the talkative one, but he never understood until now how much he hated _silence_. Danny was concerned at the amount of blood that stained Steve's forearms and hands until he saw the ropes on the ground. Thick nylon cords lay abandoned around the chair, hastily cut by what Danny guessed was a bloody piece of plate. Danny gently rotated Steve's right hand and saw the gashes in the palms, presumably from the plate as he cut the ropes. So that accounted for the bloody hands, but Danny still didn't understand why there was so much blood. Ropes could get messy, but duct tape shouldn't draw blood.

"Oh. My. God. _Sonuva-_-" Danny didn't understand all up until he pulled off the final layer of duct tape on Steve's right wrist. There must've been at least three layers, and as he pulled off that final layer he guessed that was the end of it. But Danny guessed wrong. This time, Danny couldn't stop the bile from violently shoving itself up his throat, and he barely had enough time to fall to the side and throw up on the tile, away from all the blood. Danny wasn't easily disgusted. Crime scenes were gruesome, but none of them ever bothered him to the point he was visibly sick. But this wasn't just some victim, this was his _partner_. Danny had come close to puking when he saw Steve half-dead on a truck in North Korea, but he had been able to hold it back for the time being.

Once Danny was sure there was nothing left in his stomach, Danny wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and went back to Steve. The zip ties around Steve's wrist had been pulled tight to the point that they drew blood, the final straw for his already abused wrists. Danny's original plan of just cutting through the restraints was thrown out the window as he realized that wouldn't work. He wouldn't be able to cut through the zip tie without seriously cutting Steve's hands in the process. Danny's heart skipped a beat and for a moment he couldn't breathe. If he couldn't get the zip ties off, he wouldn't be able to get Steve off the chair. If Steve couldn't get out of the chair, it would be harder to wake up. If it was harder to wake up, there was a better chance of him _never _waking up, and Danny couldn't live with that.

"No. Stop it, take a deep breath. Calm down," Danny ordered himself, sucking in a deep breath. Now was not the time to panic. Thinking back, Danny remembered an old trick his one of his buddies had told him back in New Jersey. "Come on, come on, I know I have one…" Danny mumbled to himself, standing up to search his pockets. Finally finding what he was looking for in his wallet, Danny crouched back down with reinvigorated energy.

"Steve, this isn't going to feel great, but I got to do this to get you out of here, alright? You can thank Grace for this later." Danny talked to his unconscious partner, hoping that some part of him was actually listening. Using the bobby pin he normally kept for his daughter, he bent the end so it slid into the locking mechanism of the zip tie. As soon as Danny pressed down slightly, the teeth of the zip tie had nothing left to hold onto and slid through easily. Danny cheered when the zip tie fell free from Steve's hand, letting it hang loose.

"Yes! Alright, I'm working on it, buddy, I'll get you out of there." As Danny now picked up a rhythm in cutting the duct tape and getting the zip tie off, he continuously talked. Talked about what he had been doing, how Grace was. He told Steve all about her surfing and how good she was getting.

"And now I also promised that you would go surfing with her, so you have to get better quick because now she's looking forward to it. You can't disappoint Grace, because trust me, no one wants that," Danny chuckled slightly as he cut the last zip tie off. He would deny every time, but Danny continued to gag, even dry heave, as he stared at Steve's battered wrists. He was just glad that they were off now. Out of the blue, Danny heard a small noise that sounded close to a chuckle and his head snapped up. He moved until he was back in front of the chair, staring into the now open eyes of Steve McGarrett.

"Oh thank God," Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair as he crouched down in front of Steve's chair. "Don't do that again, alright? You scared me." Steve's eyebrow twitched upward and Danny nodded his head. "I'll take that as an apology. Now, let's get that gag off." Steve's eyebrows raised again, but Danny knew the difference.

"I know, it's going to hurt. But I promise it's going to be better off." Steve relaxed a tiny bit, letting his eyes close for a second. But that second was enough to scare Danny again. "Hey, hey! What did I just tell you? No closing your eyes!" Even though Steve couldn't talk, the partners had a whole conversation just through Steve's facial expressions.

_I just closed them for a second…_

"I don't care. Last time you did, I didn't know when they were going to open again!"

_Sorry_.

"I know, it's not your fault. Just… keep them open."

_Ok, Danno._

"Don't call me Danno." This brought out a huff that Danny guessed was Steve's exhausted version of a laugh and reached around to untie the knot at the bag of the gag. "Steve, this is going to hurt, but I need you to open your mouth so I can get the gag out." Steve looked weary, but he nodded.

"Do you trust me?"

_Always_.

When Danny gave him the go, Steve opened his mouth as wide as the pain would allow him. Luckily, that was just wide enough for Danny to pull out the bloodstained gag. Steve groaned as it finally came out and he shut his mouth to try and end the pain. Moving it was definitely not a smart idea.

"Feel better?" Danny asked lightly as Steve just gave him a look, now free of any gag.

_You tell me_.

"I know. You think you're up for a move to the couch?" Danny was a little more relaxed now that Steve was awake, but concerning amounts of blood weren't doing any favors to quell his rising anxiety of the situation. Chin and Kono said they were on their way soon, but "soon" seemed to last forever. Danny hadn't even heard the scream of sirens, so it was still going to be a bit. Danny patted down his pockets to look for his phone, only to remember that he threw his phone in frustration and was currently sitting on the floor of his Camaro. His Camaro, which was outside the house that was wired to a bomb.

A grunt that sounded slightly like his name drew Danny's attention back to McGarrett, who's muscles lost all control and was currently falling forwards, out of his seat. Danny swore loudly and shifted his body to catch Steve before hit the ground. Danny felt Steve's hand slightly tighten on his bicep and his forehead hit Danny's shoulder.

"Alright, we can move to the couch _now_," Danny grunted under the added weight of the former Navy SEAL. Grabbing Steve's arm Danny slung it around his own shoulders so he took on the full force of the nearly 200 lb man as they limped to the couch. Danny winced at each moan that came from Steve, apologizing the whole way.

"Alright, easy, easy," Danny said as he slowly let Steve down. Steve would give him a lot of crap afterward for letting him get blood all over the couch, but his couch had been through so much already, Danny was surprised he hadn't gotten a new one. Danny snagged a pillow from the other end of the couch and stuck it under Steve's head before he hit the couch. Danny didn't know much about treating injuries, but he knew whatever Steve had wasn't going to be easy to treat without having professionally there to help out.

"You know, you never doing anything halfway, right?" Steve nodded before his face scrunched up in pain as Danny continued to help him stretch out. Danny tried to keep talking and keep Steve in conversation to take notice away from the pain, but with the conversation only being one-sided it was hard to keep Steve focused.

"Ok, ok, I have no idea what I'm doing!" Danny didn't mean to say it out loud, but he did before he could think about it. Steve made another huff that was supposed to be a laugh and Danny could only chuckle back.

"Oh, so you're laughing, but you're the one who is dying. So I'm freaking out over _you_, Steven. Somehow I have to figure out how to fix you enough that you don't die while people are disarming the bomb that is wired to your entire house." Steve didn't answer - not like he really could anyway - but he didn't give any acknowledgment to that last statement. Danny wasn't wearing his normal tie, so he ran upstairs and grabbed a few of McGarrett's ties instead. Even though he never meant to show his confusion, Danny truly didn't know what to do. He knew basic first aid, maybe even a little more than that. But there was so much blood, and Danny didn't know how long it had been going on, which is dangerous.

"Ok, Steve, I gotta tie this. Keep your eyes open, okay?" Danny slid one of the ties underneath Steve's right leg, just above the knee. He needed to cut off the blood flow from the bullet wound before focusing on the blood on Steve's stomach. Steve nodded once, unable to do anything else. Danny looked around, trying to find something he could use to twist the tie with, not finding anything very good with a first look around. Sprinting to the kitchen, Danny threw open drawers, desperately trying to find anything to help tie off the makeshift tourniquet. Finally, he found a long pair of scissors that would do the trick, running back to Steve. The longer he took the more time he wasted.

"This is going to hurt, but I've gotta stop the blood." Danny knew he didn't have to explain himself every time, but it felt better that way. Especially with Steve not able to talk for himself, Danny wanted to keep the conversation going for both of them. Steve nodded again, already knowing. Far too many times he's had to use them to stay alive, but it didn't hurt less at any point. This time, Steve wished his jaw wasn't broken, because this is going to _hurt_, and he couldn't bite down on anything. Danny looked over one last time for approval, and Steve gave him the go-ahead.

The makeshift tourniquet was simple, really. Danny had the tie under Steve's thigh and tied a tight knot around it so it wouldn't slip. He slipped the scissors under the tie and started to twist. At first, there wasn't too much pain, and Steve watched carefully. But after the third and fourth twist, Steve couldn't hold back anymore. His first instinct was to clench his jaw, which was a very bad idea. Steve cried out, not so much from the gunshot wound, but from aggravating his broken jaw. Forcing himself to unclench his jaw, releasing that much of the pain, Steve's arm shot out and grabbed Danny's shoulder, fingers digging into the skin. Danny winced at the pressure, but he knew Steve was going through pain ten times his, so Danny didn't dare complain. Danny watched as his partner's face turned white when Danny twisted again.

"Steve, Steve. You need to keep your eyes open!" Danny shouted as he saw Steve's eyelids flutter closed and Danny's heart raced. Keeping one hand on the tie, Danny reached over and gently grabbed Steve's jaw, forcing his partner to look at him. Putting the tiniest amount of pressure on Steve's injured jaw was enough to make the man's eyes open again, staring at Danny in exhaustion and hurt.

"Steve, I'm almost done, but you can't close your eyes. I need you awake, okay? Chin and Kono are almost here, so you need to stay awake." Steve nodded, but his eyes started to slip shut despite his protests.

"Steve, look at me. Keep looking at me, and I'm going to finish this off. Don't look away. Promise me." Danny knew this was their best shot at keeping Steve's leg under control, and they were so close. Steve blinked once and Danny understand.

_I promise. I'll try._

"All I need you to do is try," Danny said, not breaking eye contact he had. With one final twist, he tightened the tourniquet as much as he could. Steve groaned and Danny winced, hating how much pain he was bringing his partner. Without looking away, Danny slid another tie through the handles of the scissors and tied it so it stayed in place. All the while, Steve kept his promise and kept his eyes open, staring at Danny. Once the tourniquet was in place, Danny moved over to the next thing. Steve let his head fall back, breathing heavily as he stared at the ceiling. Danny moved to the next part, putting pressure on Steve's bloody side. Steve groaned at the added pressure, fist-clenching slightly again.

"What did you do here, Steven? Piss someone off?" Danny tried to keep his tone sarcastic while realizing it could very well be all true. Grabbing at the edge of Steve's undershirt, Danny pried the cloth away from the bloody skin it was stuck to. When he got it moved out of the way, Danny nearly puked again. There was a stab wound, about two inches long, but no clue how deep. And in a rush to keep from immediately bleeding out, Steve had packed the wound with a rag, which had soaked up a good amount of the blood. But it still wasn't enough. Pair with all the blood Danny had seen on the floor and around Steve's house, plus the amount of blood leaking out of the stab and gunshot wounds, Steve was dangerously close to having real damage from blood loss.

Returning pressure back on the wound, Danny glanced up at Steve to look for what he knew as symptoms of blood loss. Steve was still breathing - thank goodness - but each breath was rapid and became more and more shallow. _Check_. Steve was pale and when Danny grabbed his hand, it was cold and sweaty. _Check_. While holding Steve's hand, he moved it around so he got a good grip over the pulse, scarcely breathing himself as he waited for the tell-tale beat of a pulse. A second later he felt it, but it was small and weak. _Check_. Danny swore out loud as those confirmed his suspicions. Steve was still awake and his eyes were open, but movements were sluggish and he continued to stare at the ceiling. Just then, Danny heard a phone ring in the house. Steve heard it too, and slowly lifted his head to try and get a look around.

"Put pressure on this," Danny commanded, moving one of Steve's hands to the stab wound and pushing down. Steve winced, but when Danny lifted up his hands, Steve kept the same amount of pressure. _Good man,_ Danny thought as he ran through the house, past the phone that had called him earlier which now sat broken with a bullet through the center. Danny's phone was in the car, so it had to be Steve's. With it still ringing and not in sight downstairs, Danny sprinted upstairs and found it buzzing on the bathroom counter. Danny snatched it and answered just at the last ring, breathless and running back down the stairs.

"Chin?"

"_Danny? It's us,"_ Chin answered through the phone, Kono standing by his side. "_We're here, so is HPD, the bomb squad, and ambulances. We're all out here."_ Danny let out a sigh of relief as he put the phone on the floor near him on speaker and returned to putting pressure on the stab wound.

"Good. The bomb is around back, sitting in front of the back door. It's wired all around the house, to all the doors. I managed to get inside through Steve's bedroom window, but I don't know how many more can fit in. But Steve's in some serious trouble, and I need some help."

"_Got it, Danny. We've got the window…"_ Suddenly, Danny heard Kono swear and his heart rate picked up a bit more.

"What?"

"_Danny, you have no idea how lucky you are. The window _was _wired. I climbed up on the fence, and I could just barely see it. I don't know how you did it, but opening that window should've triggered the bomb_." Danny swore loudly, and evidently bad enough for Steve to lean his head over and stare at him.

"Oh shut up, McGarrett, you've said worse." Danny turned back so he was talking on the phone instead of his grinning partner. "I don't know what you want me to say. If it _had_, we'd be having a very different conversation right now. But it didn't, so we're fine. I'd do it again if I had to."

"_Don't shoot the messenger, brah, we all would too,"_ Chin said and Danny could hear the sound of the bomb squad shouting back and forth to each other. "_Bomb squad is on the bomb, but they don't know how long it's going to be." _

"Best guess?"

"_Shortest, probably fifteen minutes. More realistically? Around half an hour or more."_

"That's not enough time," Danny mumbled to himself. "I need an EMT on the line. Steve's doing bad, and I don't know how to fix it. If you can't get anyone in here, I need someone to help walk me through fixing some of this."

"_You got it, boss," _Kono said over the line. As soon as she said it, Danny hated it. 'Boss' was Steve's title, not his. Danny didn't want to think about the implications of that name if Steve didn't make it through. Danny didn't even want to think about Steve not making it through at all. Danny shot a glance over at his partner and forced a smile.

"We're gonna get you out of here, buddy, ok? Just got a do a few more things." Over the line, Danny heard a new voice ask Chin and Kono a few questions before hopping on the line himself.

"_Detective Williams? Are you there?"_

"Yeah, I'm here."

"_Detective, my name is Noah Mahelona, I'm a paramedic. I heard you need some help. Can you tell me what you see on the patient?"_ Danny didn't like the word 'patient' either. This wasn't just some 'patient', this was Steve. His partner, the Five-0 leader, and so much more than just a _patient_.

"Yeah. Steve… Steve's got a gunshot word to right above his right knee, I tied a tourniquet above that to stop some of the bleedings, it seems to be working."

"_Do you have a windlass to the tourniquet? Something like a stick to make it tighter?" _

"Yeah, I've got a pair of scissors wrapped around it."

"_Good, good, that just increased his chances by a lot more. I'm walking around to the glass doors so I can get a look, but keep telling me what you see."_ Danny took a deep breath and continued talking.

"Cuts and a lot of blood on his face and hands. I was on the phone with them earlier and he took a lot of punches. They broke his jaw, and he probably has a concussion too." Steve was listening as Danny listed off what he saw, and Steve nodded slightly when Danny guessed a concussion.

"Yeah, definitely a concussion. Wrist and ankles are a mess, they... used rope first, then replaced it with zip ties and duct tape. And there's a stab wound, just to the lower left side of his abdomen. He's gotten hit here before, shanked by an inmate, so I don't think any organs were hit, but there's too much blood. Too much." As Danny finished talking, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Staring out the window Danny saw a young man holding a medical bag and a phone up to his ear. Noah took one look instead and Danny could hear a sharp inhale and a whistle through the phone.

"_Yeah, that looks pretty bad_." Danny gave him a look through the window and gestured towards the prone Steve.

"Not really want I want to hear right now, Mahelona," Danny growled. "I've done all that I could, and there's pressure on the stab wound, but he lost a lot of blood and I don't know what to do about that," Danny confessed before another grunt from Steve caught his attention. Danny was sure the EMT was saying something, but Danny ignored it for now.

"Steve, what did I tell you? You gotta keep pressure on it," Danny said quietly, grabbing Steve's hand and pushing it back down on the wound. At this point, Danny's hands were covered in as much blood as Steve's were.

"Steve?"

Steve still didn't answer. He let his head fall to the side so he could look up at Danny, who's eyes were searching Steve's looking for an answer. Steve wished he could talk because at least he could've said something. A joke. An explanation. An apology. A goodbye. _Something_. But now he was leaving Danny with nothing. So instead, Steve pushed the rest of the strength he had into moving his hand up, resting it on Danny's cheek.

Danny's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth opened to say something. Instead of words, he saw Steve smile. It must've hurt, but it was a full smile. In that split second of silence, Steve's smile fell off his face, and his hand limply dropped from Danny's cheek, leaving a trail of blood behind it. Danny's heart dropped as Steve's eyes rolled back into his head for the second, and possibly the final time. Danny swore loudly and colorfully, shoving his fingers up against Steve's neck looking for a pulse.

"Steve! Steve, hey you can't do this? What did I say? _You promised me_!" Danny shouted, eyes burning. Under his fingers, he felt a pulse, but it was slow and erratic. "Hey!" Before Danny could do anything else, Steve coughed, loud and hard and sucked in a deep breath, but never exhaled. "_Steve!"_

"Detective! Detective! Detective Williams!" Noah was shouting frantically at what he heard over the phone, but he couldn't get the detective's attention. "_Danny! _I need you to tell me what happened!"

"He…" Danny couldn't breathe. It felt like all of the air had been sucked out of his lungs, and he was left desperately gasping for air. Air that Steve wasn't breathing. "He stopped. Just stopped. Noah, he isn't breathing!"

"_Ok, Detective, we can deal with that, but first I need you to stop and take a deep -" _

"Mahelona, I swear to God if you say a deep breath I'm climbing back out that window and punch you in the face. I know I need to calm down, but I'm not taking a breath because Steve isn't taking one. So answer me, can I do CPR on this couch or do I have to move him to the floor?"

"_Hard surface is better, Detective. You need to make sure all his airways are open."_

"You seriously need to lay off whatever trash you're eating. Or eat less of it," Danny grumbled as he slid his arms underneath Steve's legs and back, dragging him off the couch and putting him on the floor as gently as possible. CPR was one of the first things Danny learned as a cop, he just never imagined he would be doing it on his partner. He made sure Steve was all stretched out and tilted his head back while Noah silently watched from outside the lanai doors. Earlier the bomb squad had tried to get everyone out of the blast radius, but Chin and Kono refused, and soon Noah did too. The Commander wasn't looking good at all, Noah knew he had to get inside as soon as the bomb was disabled.

Wrapping one hand above his fist, Danny kneeled above his partner and started CPR, pumping out chest compressions to the beat of Staying Alive. Such an ironic song, but Danny kept pumping. He really didn't want to do mouth to mouth, because somehow he would have to do it around a broken jaw, but he would do it to save his partner's life. Miraculously, it never came to that.

Just as Danny was nearing the thirtieth compression, Steve gasped and inhaled deeply, coughing out the exhale. Danny watched for a second breath, staying completely still until he saw Steve's chest lift up and fall back down a second, a third, a fourth time. Only after Danny was sure that Steve was ok to breathe on his own did Danny take his own breath. That was terrifying. But the horrors weren't over yet.

"Ok, he's breathing. But he's still lost too much blood," Danny spoke to Noah directly, expecting an answer until the phone was stolen by Chin.

"_Danny, they just disarmed the bomb, we'll be inside in just a minute."_

"Oh thank God," Danny sighed, wiping his eyes with his forearm. He bent over and resumed pressure on the stab wound. Just like Chin promised, everyone raced inside a minute later, led by Chin and Kono. The two other members of Five-0 dropped by the side of their boss, in more shock then they saw from the brief glances they got from the lanai doors. Followed closely behind them were Noah and his partner Hani, complete with their emergency bags and stretcher.

"Who did this?" Kono asked in shock, hand covering her mouth. Steve had continued breathing on his own, but he had yet to wake up. Danny remembered that he had failed to inform the cousins on some of the finer details, just instructions to call for backup.

"Wo Fat. I don't think he himself was here, but definitely people working for him. I think he was trying to get all of us."

Chin looked confused, and the EMTs laid down their board and prepared to get Steve on it. "What do you mean?"

"I heard in on their conversation. And when I got here, all the doorways were wired. If they weren't trying to get us, they were trying to get the first responders. They wired the entrances to get anyone who walked in trying to help Steve. No doubt this was about Steve, but this isn't the first time Wo Fat's tried to come after all of us," Danny explained, for the cousins and also for himself. He tried his best to try and see what made Wo Fat do what he does, but no matter how he twisted things, he could never see Wo Fat's point of view. No type of revenge or hate warranted the actions against Steve and Five-0. But the sudden flurry of Noah and his partner brought the rest of the Five-0 team to the attention of their boss.

"Oxygen's dropping, BP is 85 over 56, we need to bag him and get a transfusion going. He's not going to make it without one." Noah shouted out to his partner as they picked up Steve and set him in the C-Collar and put him on the board. "You guys know what his blood type is?"

"A negative" Danny jumped in immediately. "Same as mine."

"Good," Noah said, waving his hand to Danny motioned him to follow. "Because we don't have any more A negative on the bus and he needs a transfusion _now_. We'll have to do it on the ride." Danny glanced back at Chin and Kono, who was in as just shock as he was but waved him on anyway.

"We'll be right behind you," Kono promised. Danny nodded, knowing everything was safe in their hands. Danny sprinted to catch up with Noah and Hani as they loaded Steve in the back of the ambulance and jumped inside right as Noah closed the doors. Hani started getting an IV going as Noah prepared for a transfusion. The sirens were turned on and they were off, the driver speeding past regular civilians.

Danny rolled up his sleeve and Noah swapped the crook of Danny's elbow. The direct transfusion itself wasn't difficult, just not as common anymore. It wasn't paramedic's preferred method, but in a pinch with lives on the line, it worked. Danny barely even felt the needle go into his arm. He was mostly _numb_. He couldn't take his eyes off his partner. Steve's eyes never opened as Hani put in the IV and placed various wires and sensors on his bloodstained body. Danny barely registered Noah's orders telling him to squeeze the stress ball place in his hand, something to keep the blood going. When Danny finally regained some sort of feeling - albeit it a weird one from the needle in his arm - he tore away his gaze from Steve to the blood dripping down the tube out of his arm. He watched the blood stain the clear tube red as it swirled around and entered through the IV in Steve's arm.

Danny was uncharacteristically silent as the ambulance rushed to the hospital, not taking his eyes off his partner for the rest of the time. Danny felt the minutes turn into hours as they raced to Tripler. With his free hand, Danny snaked his hand over the gurney keeping Steve in place and grabbed his hand, squeezing gently.

"Come on, Steve. Hang in there buddy," Danny said, hoping that Steve heard him. Almost instantly, the heart rate monitor attached to Steve kicked up a notch, beeping rapidly. Danny's eyes widened as Noah and Hani moved in a panic, trying to keep everything still as Steve started to move around in the gurney.

"We're almost there," Hani shouted, holding on the wall and the gurney as the ambulance made a hard turn. "We have to keep him still!" Danny leaned forward, mindful of the needle in his own arm.

"Steven, look at me!" He shouted, grabbing the edge of the gurney bars. For a moment, the thrashing stopped and Steve froze. Blinking, slowly his eyes opened and he turned towards Danny. Danny shot a quick glance over at Noah, who nodded and gave him a thumbs up. The rapid beeping was going down, so Danny talking him down was working. Turning back to Steve, Danny saw two dulled blue eyes blink nervously over at him, still unable to say anything. But Danny could see the rigid lines of tension through Steve's face, and the quick darting all around told Danny that Steve was beyond nervous.

"Hey, hey, look at me," Danny coaxed, drawing Steve's eyes back on him. He squeezed Steve's hand again, careful of the newly bandaged wrists. "Steve, just look at me. Breathe, ok? Breathe." Steve seemed to finally relax and lay back down, eyes staring straight up at the ceiling of the ambulance. Danny continued to talk to him, just like he had done through this entire ordeal. It was the only thing keeping both of them sane.

Danny talked as Steve's eyes slid shut again. Danny talked as his oxygen dropped for the second time and Noah started frantic CPR. Danny talked as the wailing of the heart monitor dropped and Steve's heart stopped beating. Danny talked as Noah and Hani used the defibrillator to try to restart his heart. Danny talked as he watched Steve's body arch as electricity ran through his veins.

They had gotten enough blood for the ride and had long taken out the needle for the transfusion. _There will be more at the hospital, _Noah had promised, but Danny only half listened. The only time Danny let go of Steve's hand was when the defibrillator was used to shock Steve's system back into working. As soon as that beautiful beeping sound filled the machines again and Steve took a breath, Danny grabbed Steve's hand and continued to talk. And talk.

And _talk. _

Danny didn't notice the tears start to roll down his cheeks as Steve crashed a second time, just as they pulled up to Tripler. The ambulance doors were thrown open and they were greeted with doctors shouting various medical terms that flew way over Danny's head. Danny just did what he was good at, keeping one hand on Steve's arm and talking to him as the doctors rolled his cart down the hospital hallways towards the operating room. Danny just kept talking. And he never stopped.

Until someone grabbed him by the arm and tugged him back as his partner slipped through the doors to the operating room. Danny spun on a dime, arm cocked back ready to punch whoever held him back, only to be face to face with Chin. Freezing in his spot, Danny saw Kono standing just off behind her cousin, her own tears streaming down her cheeks.

"He's going to be alright, Danny. This is Steve we're talking about. He's stubborn, you know that. No way is he going to let something like this take him out of the game," Chin tried to reason, but his own voice cracks weren't exactly the perfect display of confidence. Danny nodded, but his eyes fell to the ground and became suddenly interested in the cracks on the tile at his feet. He felt the panic rise up again, bubbling up inside of his chest and taking away all the air that he had. Then Danny was gasping, gasping for air that he couldn't seem to find. Chin's eyes widened and Kono stepped forward.

"Danny, you alright?" Kono asked, getting no reply. "Danny, just look at me. Breathe, ok?" At those simple words, Danny's head snapped up, staring at Kono. Somehow her intended words of encouragement didn't do anything to help. He recognized those words. That was the same thing he had told Steve when he started to panic in the ambulance.

"Excuse me…" Danny mumbled, breaking away from the cousins. He walked away casually while he was still in the cousins' line of sight, but sprinted as soon as he hit the corner. He ran until he hit the bathroom, practically kicking in the door to the stall and emptying his stomach in the toilet. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks as he tried to block everything out, but every simple thought brought on another wave of nausea.

Chin looked at Kono as soon as Danny broke away from them, his own eyes almost as red as hers. "Is he really going to make it, cuz? I know Boss has been through some pretty stuff things but…" Kono didn't finish her sentence as Chin pulled her into a tight hug, the cousins crying quietly into each other's shoulders.

No one bothered them as they stood in the middle of the hallway, and no one questioned Danny when he came out of the bathroom, his own eyes puffy and red and wiping his mouth. His stomach had finally settled but bubbled up again with a new emotion. Pure, unbridled _rage_. He found the cousins a second later, his voice broke but with as much seriousness as ever.

"I want these bastards _now_."

While the doctors operated on Steve, the rest of the Five-0 team went tracking down the people responsible, hell-bent on getting answers and even revenge. Luckily, while the people who attacked Steve worked for Wo Fat, none of them were nearly as smart as Wo Fat, and Chin found their location in a matter of minutes. The butt-kicking came swiftly and out of the blue. Wo Fat's men never even saw them coming. Nobody was killed, but none of the police question when the criminals came a little worse for wear.

The rest of the time was spent crammed in a private recovery room. The team nearly cried in relief when the doctor told them that Steve was going to be ok. It was a long, painful surgery and they had almost lost him a few more times, but he had pulled through. Just like every other time, he pulled through. It was going to be a rough recovery, but he would make it. All he had to do was wake up.

So the Five-0 team spent their time waiting. Waiting for their boss, their partner, their _brother_ to wake up.

There was a full day of waiting, but their answer came in the middle of the night. But by then, no one was awake. Steve blinked once, then twice as his vision slowly came into view. He couldn't move much, only barely lift his head. Even then, paired with the painkillers racing through his body, it hurt. He could taste metal in his mouth, and almost like a movie, the events of the last few days ran through his mind. It was a shock, all the images at once, but it was better than not knowing what had happened at all.

Grateful that it was night and there were no bright lights to get in the way of his vision, Steve finally got a look around the room. Danny was sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair right next to him, one Steve knew Danny had been forced into too many times. He had his feet propped up at the edge of Steve's bed, and an old New Jersey sweatshirt for a blanket. With the deep circles under his partner's eyes, Steve smiled slightly. Danny looked genuinely _peaceful_. Not something Steve saw too often.

Lifting his head a little further, Steve saw Chin and Kono leaning against each other on more chairs at the foot of his bed. Chin was leaning back with his head against the wall, and his arm thrown around Kono who was sleeping against his shoulder. Kono was snoring slightly, and Steve couldn't help but chuckle.

Unfortunately, that chuckle turned into a cough as his battered chest tried to take in a breath, and the cough moved his mouth which made the pain flare in his jaw. _So much for staying quiet,_ Steve thought to himself as Danny and the cousins shot up with a start.

"Steve?" Danny asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his hands. Not really able to move much, or really _wanting_ to move much, Steve lifting his hand a few inches and gave a little wave. Danny watched Steve's hand move and looked back up at his face, where bright blue eyes stared back at the Jersey detective. Then, and only then, did Danny truly let out a sigh of relief.

"You scared us, brah," Chin spoke, unable to keep a small laugh out of his voice. Steve made a face, trying to make up for the lack of words. Fortunately, everyone understood.

_Sorry._

"Don't worry about it, Boss," Kono jumped in, walking around to the other side of the bed to be at his side

"Besides, we're '_ohana_, we'd all do the same," Chin continued for her, a full smile finally gracing his handsome face. They were all tired, clothes rumpled and dirty, but they were truly happy.

"Yeah," Danny agreed, grabbing Steve's hand and squeezing it gently.

"No one touches our '_ohana_, but definitely no one touches our Steve."

* * *

**Alright, guys, that's it! I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did, I've worked on this for a long time. But, you know that already. So yeah. But if you like it, give it a follow, write me a review, I seriously love reading reviews you have no idea. It makes my day, every single time. Other than that, this is where we leave. I'll be back soon with more stories, hopefully, the next one being a full multi-chapter story, so now you guys have that to look out for ;)**

**Thanks for reading, leave a review, tell me what you think. Thanks so much!**

**Be Awesome, Stay Hilarious, Trust God, and Love Avengers!**

**-avengersashley**


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